Regular plurals The plural morpheme in English is suffixed to the end of most nouns Regular English plurals fall into three classes depending upon the sound that ends the singular form Where a singular noun ends in a sibilant sound s z t or d he plural is formed by adding z The spelling adds es or s if the singular already ends in e kiss kisses ksz phase phases fezz dish dishes dz massage massages msz or msz witch witches wtz judge judges ddz When the singular form ends in a voiceless consonant other than a sibilant p t k f or the plural is formed by adding s The spelling adds s Examples lap laps lps cat cats kts clock clocks klks cough coughs kfs death deaths ds For all other words i e words ending in vowels or voiced non sibilants the regular plural adds z represented orthographically by s boy boys bz girl girls rlz chair chairs trz Morphophonetically these rules are sufficient to describe most English plurals However there are several complications introduced in spellin g The oes rule most nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant also form their plurals by adding es pronounced z hero heroes potato potatoes volcano volcanoes or volcanos The ies rule nouns ending in a y preceded by a consonant usually drop the y and add ies pronounced iz This is taught to many North American and British students with the mnemonic Change the y to i and add es cherry cherries lady ladies However proper nouns particularly those for people or places ending in a y preceded by a consonant form their plurals regularly Germany Germanys as in The two Germanys were unified in 1990 this rule is commonly not adhered to as several book titles show Sicilies and Scillies rather than Sicilys and Scillys are the standard plurals of Sicily and Scilly Harry Harrys as in There are three Harrys in our office The rule does not apply to words that are merely capitalized common nouns P O Ferries from ferry Other exceptions include lay bys and stand bys Words ending in a y preceded by a vowel form their plurals regularly day days monkey monkeys Money Monies is an exception but money can also form its plural regularly Almost regular plurals Many nouns of foreign origin including almost all Italian loanwords are exceptions to the oes rule canto cantos homo homos piano pianos portico porticos pro pros quarto paper size quartos kimono kimonos In Old and Middle English voiceless fricatives f mutated to voiced fricatives before a voiced ending In some words this voicing survives in the modern English plural In the case of f changing to v the mutation is indicated in the orthography as well also a silent e is added in this case if the singular does not already end with e bath baths bz bz mouth mouths maz calf calves kvz kvz knife knives navz In addition there is one word where s is voiced in the plural house houses hazz Many nouns ending in f or nevertheless retain the voiceless consonant moth moths proof proofs Some can do either dwarf1 dwarfs dwarves hoof h oofs hooves roof roofs rooves staff2 staffs staves turf turfs turves latter rare leaf3 Leafs leaves see footnote Note 1 For dwarf the common form of the plural was dwarfss for example in Walt Disney s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfsntil J R R Tolkien popularized dwarves he intended the changed spelling to differentiate the dwarf fantasy race in his novels from the cuter and simpler beings common in fairy tales but his usage has since spread Multiple astronomical dwarf stars and multiple nonmythological short human beings however remain dwarfs Note 2 For staff stf or stf in the sense of a body of employees the plural is always staff otherwise both staffs and staves stevz are acceptable except in compounds such as flagstaffs Staves is rare in North America except in the sense of magic rod or the musical notation tool stave of a barrel or cask is a back formation from staves which is its plural See the Plural to singular by back formation section below Note 3 For leaf the forme r refers specifically to the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team while the latter is the term used for the plural of the plant part in general See the collective nouns section below Irregular plurals There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals usually stemming from older forms of English or from foreign borrowings Nouns with identical singular and plural Some nouns spell their singular and plural exactly alike some linguists regard these as regular plurals Many of these are the names of animals deer moose sheep bison salmon pike trout fish swine The plural deers is listed in some dictionaries but is widely considered to be an error As a general rule game or other animals are often referred to in the singular for the plural in a sporting context He shot six brace of pheasant Carruthers bagged a dozen tiger last year whereas in another context such as zoology or tourism the regular plural would be used Similarly nearly all kinds of fish have no separate plural fo rm though there are exceptions such as rays sharks or lampreys And the word fish itself is also troublesome being generally used as a plural when in the context of food but forming a regular plural otherwise thus three lots of fish and chips the industry landed 5 200 tonnes of fish in 1998 but the order of fishes the miracle of the loaves and fishes the phrase sleep with the fishes usage does vary however so that for example the phrase five fish in an aquarium might to another native user be five fishes in an aquarium Using the plural form fish would imply many individual fish of the same species while fishes would imply many individual fish of differing species At present there is no name for words that have identical singular and plural forms Other nouns that have identical singular and plural forms include aircraft blues4 cannon sometimes cannons head5 stone occasionally stones 6 Note 4 Referring to individual songs in the blues musical style play me a blues he sang three blues and a calypso Note 5 Referring in the plural to animals in a herd fifty head of cattle Note 6 As a unit of weight equal to 14 lbs avoirdupois Irregular e n plurals The plural of a few nouns can also be formed from the singular by adding n or en stemming from the Old English weak declension ox oxen particularly when referring to a team of draft animals sometimes oxes American child children actually earlier plural cildra cildru plus en suffix forming a double plural brother brethren archaic plural of brother earlier brether plus en suffix forming a double plural now used in fraternal order cow kine archaic regional actually earlier plural kye cf Scots kye cows plus en suffix forming a double plural egg eyren eggys rare dialectal Northern England eye eyen rare found in some regional dialects shoe shoon rare dialectal house housen rare dialectal used by Rudyard Kipling in Puck of Pook s Hill hose hosen rare archaic used in King James Version of the Bible The word box ref erring to a computer is semi humorously pluralized boxen in the Leet dialect Multiple Vax computers likewise are sometimes called Vaxen particularly if operating as a cluster but multiple Unix systems are usually Unices along the Latin model The word sistren referring to Christian sisters modeled on brethren is also semi humorously pluralized Ablaut plurals The plural is sometimes formed by simply changing the vowel sound of the singular in a process called ablaut these are sometimes called mutated plurals foot feet goose geese louse lice man men mouse mice tooth teeth woman women Mouse is sometimes pluralized mouses in discussions of the computer mouse however mice is just as common Mongoose however has the plural mongooses Irregular plurals from Latin and Greek English has borrowed a great many words from Latin and Classical Greek The general trend with loanwords is toward what is called Anglicization or naturalization that is the re formation of the word and its inflectio ns as normal English words Many nouns particularly ones from Latin have retained their original plurals for some time after they are introduced Other nouns have become Anglicized taking on the normal s ending In some cases both forms are still competing The choice of a form can often depend on context for a librarian the plural of appendix is appendices following the original language for physicians however the plural of appendix is appendixes Likewise a radio engineer works with antennas and an entomologist deals with antennae Choice of form can also depend on the level of discourse traditional Latin plurals are found more often in academic and scientific contexts whereas in daily speech the anglicized forms are more common In the following table the Latin plurals are listed together with the Anglicized forms when they are more common Final a becomes ae also or just adds s alumna alumnae formula formulae formulas encyclopedia rarely encyclopdia encyclopedias encyclopediae i s rare Final ex or ix becomes ices pronounced siz or just adds es index indices ndsiz or indexes matrix matrices metrsiz vertex vertices vrtsiz Some people treat process as if it belonged to this class pronouncing processes prssiz instead of standard prssz Since the word comes from Latin processus whose plural in the fourth declension is processs with a long u this pronunciation is by analogy not etymology Final is becomes es pronounced iz axis axes ksiz crisis crises krasiz testis testes tstiz Note that axes the plural of axis is pronounced differently from axes ksz the plural of ax e Final ies remains unchanged series series species species Final on becomes a automaton automata criterion criteria phenomenon phenomena more below polyhedron polyhedra Final um becomes a or just adds s addendum addenda agendum obsolete not listed in most dictionaries agenda means a list of items of business at a meeting and has the plural agendas datum data Now usually treated as a singular ma ss noun in both informal and educated usage but usage in scientific publications shows a strong UK US divide U S usage prefers treating data in the singular in all contexts including serious and academic publishing UK usage now widely accepts treating data as singular in standard English including educated everyday usage at least in non scientific use UK scientific publishing usually still prefers treating it as a plural Some UK university style guides recommend using data for both singular and plural use and some recommend treating it only as a singular in connection with computers In engineering drafting surveying and geodesy and in weight and balance calculations for aircraft a datum plural datums or data is a reference point surface or axis on an object or the earth surface against which measurements are made forum fora forums medium media in communications and computers now often treated as a singular mass noun mediums spiritualists or items of medium size etc corrigend um corrigenda memorandum memoranda memorandums millennium millennia Final us becomes i second declension a or era or ora third declension or just adds es especially in fourth declension where it would otherwise be the same as the singular alumnus alumni corpus corpora census censuses focus foci genus genera prospectus prospectuses plural prospectus is rare radius radii syllabus syllabi viscus viscera Virus had no plural ending in Latin the plural in English is usually viruses See Plural form of words ending in us Virus cactus cactuses cacti in Arizona many people avoid either choice with cactus as both singular and plural fungus fungi hippopotamus hippopotamuses hippopotami octopus octopuses note octopi also occurs although it is strictly speaking unfounded because it is not a Latin noun of the second declension but rather a Latinized form of Greek eight foot The theoretically correct form octopodes is rarely used platypus platypuses same as octopus platypi occurs but is ety mologically incorrect and platypodes while technically correct is even rarer than octopodes terminus termini terminuses uterus uteri uteruses Final us remains unchanged in the plural fourth declension the plural has a long to differentiate it from the singular short meatus meatus Colloquial usages based in a humorous fashion on the second declension include Elvii to refer to multiple Elvis impersonators and Loti used by petrolheads to refer to Lotus automobiles in the plural Final as in one case of a noun of Greek origin changes to antes Atlas Atlantes statues of the hero but atlas atlases map collections Final ma in nouns of Greek origin can add ta although s is usually also acceptable and in many cases more common stigma stigmata stigmas stoma stomata stomas schema schemata schemas dogma dogmata dogmas lemma lemmata lemmas Irregular plurals from other languages Some nouns of French origin add an x which may be silent or pronounced z beau beaux bureau bureaus or bureaux cht eau chteaux tableau tableaux Foreign terms may take native plural forms especially when the user is addressing an audience familiar with the language In such cases the conventionally formed English plural may sound awkward or be confusing Nouns of Slavic origin add a or i according to native rules or just s kniazhestvo kniazhestva kniazhestvos kobzar kobzari kobzars oblast oblasti oblasts Nouns of Hebrew origin add im or ot generally m f according to native rules or just s cherub cherubim cherubs matzah matzot matzahs seraph seraphim seraphs Note that ot is pronounced os with unvoiced s in the Ashkenazi dialect Many nouns of Japanese origin have no plural form and do not change benshi benshi otaku otaku samurai samurai However other nouns such as kimonos ninjas futons and tsunamis are more often seen with a regular English plural In New Zealand English nouns of Mori origin can either take an s or have no separate plural form Words more connected to Mori culture and used in t hat context tend to retain the same form while names of flora and fauna may or may not take an s depending on context Many regard omission as more correct k
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