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Irregular plural nouns

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19 views

Irregular plural nouns

Uploaded by

Ioana Alexandra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The most common irregular plurals

Nouns ending in –f and –fe

To make a plural of a word ending in -f, change the f to a v and add es.
Similarly, if a word ends in -fe, change the f to a v and add an s. The result for
both types is a plural that ends in -ves. This spelling arose because of the
difficulty of pronouncing f and s together in English (an attempt to do this will
produce a v sound).

Singular (-f, -fe) Plural (-ves)


knife knives
life lives
wife wives
calf calves
leaf leaves
Exceptions: roofs and proofs (among others).

Nouns ending in -o

Plurals of words ending in -o are usually made by adding -es.

Singular (-o) Plural (-oes)


potato potatoes
tomato tomatoes
hero heroes
torpedo torpedoes
veto vetoes
But of course, there are exceptions. (Aren’t there always?) Some words
ending in -o that are borrowed from other languages take only an s to make a
plural, such as pianos, cantos, photos, and zeros. Cello, which is an
abbreviation of the Italian word violoncello, can be pluralized in the traditional
way, as celli, or the commonly accepted anglicized way, as cellos.

Nouns that change vowels

Many English words become plural by changing their vowels, such


as oo to ee or an to en.

Singular Plural (vowel change)


foot feet
tooth teeth
goose geese
man men
woman women
Fun fact: The eighteenth-century American dictionary reformer Noah Webster
preferred spellings that were closer to their most common pronunciations.
Thus, he advocated for the return of the Old English plural wimmen. Wouldn’t
that have been convenient?

Irregular nouns that change substantially

For a variety of historical reasons, some words change in spelling


substantially when made plural.

Singular Plural
mouse mice
louse lice
die dice (zaruri)
ox oxen (bou / taur)
child children
person people
penny pence (in British usage)

Irregular nouns that do not change at all

Some English nouns are identical in their singular and plural forms. Many of
these are the names of animals.

Singular/Plural (no change)


sheep
fish
moose
swine
buffalo
shrimp
deer
trout
I have seen several deer when walking in the woods near here.

How many shrimp did you catch?

Aircraft, watercraft, hovercraft, and spacecraft are all the same whether
singular or plural.

NASA has made several different types of spacecraft in its fifty-nine-year history.

Plurals of Latin and Greek words

There are certain words we use on a regular basis, especially in mathematical


and scientific contexts, that are borrowed from Latin or Greek. Many of these
words retain their Latin or Greek plurals in math and science settings. Some
of them also have anglicized plural forms that have come into common use.

Nouns ending in -us

To make a word ending in -us plural, change -us to -i. Many plurals of words
ending in -us have anglicized versions, formed by simply adding -es.
The latter method sounds more natural in informal settings. If there is an
anglicized version that is well accepted, this will be noted in the dictionary
entry for the word you are using.

Singular (-us) Plural (-i)


focus foci (also focuses)
radius radii (also radiuses)
fungus fungi
nucleus nuclei
cactus cacti
alumnus alumni
octopus octopuses (or octopi)
hippopotamus hippopotami (or hippopotamuses)

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -is

Nouns with an -is ending can be made plural by changing -is to -es. Some
people have a hard time remembering that the plural of crisis is crises and the
plural of axis is axes, but crisises and axises are incorrect.
Singular (-is) Plural (-es)
axis axes (this is also the plural of ax and axe)
analysis analyses
crisis crises
thesis theses

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -on

These Greek words change their -on ending to -a.

Singular (-on) Plural (-a)


phenomenon phenomena
criterion criteria

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -um

Words ending in -um shed their -um and replace it with -a to form a plural. The
plurals of some of these words are far better known than their singular
counterparts.

Singular (-um) Plural (-a)


datum data
memorandum memoranda
bacterium bacteria
stratum strata
curriculum curricula (also curriculums)

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -ix

Nouns ending in -ix are changed to -ices in formal settings, but sometimes -
xes is perfectly acceptable.

Plural (-ces, -xes)


Singular (-ex, -ix)
index indices (or indexes)

appendix appendices (or appendixes, in a medical context)

vortex vortices (or vortexes)

Complete the sentences with the nouns in brackets. Use the plural.
1. How many mice does your cat catch? (mouse)
2. They usually keep their winter clothes in boxes. (box)
3. We saw some deer on our way to the beach. (deer)
4. She bought two scarves in our online shop. (scarf)
5. Our uncle often tells us funny stories. (story)
6. We often have fish for dinner on Fridays. (fish)
7. My sister likes ice cream with blueberries. (blueberry)
8. Our dog has never had any lice. (louse)
9. The girls bought three dresses in the mall. (dress)
10. How many people work in your office? (person)
11. The farmer has a lot of sheep and oxes / oxen. (sheep / ox)
12. You should always keep your feet warm in winter. (foot)
13. Does a cat really have seven lives? (life)
14. At how many parties have you been this year? (party)
15. Thieves broke into their house and stole some paintings. (thief)
16. You should clean your teeth twice a day. (tooth)
17. How many women work in the restaurant? (woman)
18. My brother always has two sandwiches for lunch. (sandwich)
19. He was unlucky because he missed the hole by inches. (inch)
20. They have five children, three girl and two boys. (child)

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