Course on Plural Nouns - TOEIC® Preparation
In English, nouns can be singular or plural. The formation of the plural follows several rules that we will detail below.
1. Regular Plural Nouns
Most English nouns form their plural by adding -s or -es to the end of the word.
- Adding -s: The majority of nouns simply take an -s in the plural.
- dog → dogs
- book → books
- car → cars
- Adding -es: Nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -z take -es in the plural.
- bus → buses
- watch → watches
- box → boxes
- Adding -ies: Nouns ending with a consonant followed by -y take -ies in the plural.
- city → cities
- story → stories
- family → families
- Adding -f / -fes: Nouns ending in -f or -fe generally take -ves in the plural.
- leaf → leaves
- wife → wives
- knife → knives
2. Irregular Plural Nouns
Some nouns do not follow the standard rule and have a particular plural form.
- Vowel Change: Some words change vowels in the plural.
- man → men
- woman → women
- foot → feet
- tooth → teeth
- goose → geese
- Plural in -en: Some words form their plural by adding -en.
- child → children
- ox → oxen
- No Change: Some nouns have the same form in singular and plural.
- sheep → sheep
- deer → deer
- fish → fish
(But "fishes" can be used to refer to multiple species of fish.)
3. Collective Nouns and Their Plural Usage
Collective nouns refer to a group of elements and can be followed by a singular or plural verb depending on the context.
- The team is winning.
- The team are discussing their strategy.
4. Uncountable Nouns and Their Lack of Plural
Uncountable nouns do not take a plural. To quantify them, expressions like a piece of, a bottle of, a cup of, etc., are used.
- ❌ informations → ✅ some information
- ❌ waters → ✅ a glass of water
To learn more about uncountable nouns, you can read the course on countable and uncountable nouns.
5. Compound Nouns in Plural
Compound nouns follow different rules to form their plural:
- Plural on the main word
- brother-in-law → brothers-in-law
- mother-in-law → mothers-in-law
- Plural at the end of the word
- checkout → checkouts
- handbag → handbags
If you haven't read it, you can read the course on compound nouns.
Other Courses
Here are other grammar courses for the TOEIC®: