Plural nouns with 's', 'es', and 'ies'
Construction
The plural ending of a noun is usually s but it is sometimes es, ies, or irregular. Singular noun = 1 telephone Plural noun = 2 telephones. 
Irregular endings
|
| Singular | Plural | Comments |
|
en ending |
child man woman |
children men women
|
|
|
o
|
tomato potato volcano |
tomatoes potatoes volcanoes |
Words of foreign origin, including Italian words, often take 's' not 'es':
photos zeros pianos porticos scenarios
|
|
Others
|
person mouse penny [£] penny [$] |
people mice pence/pennies [£] pennies [$] |
In the UK, 'pence' = an amount of money and 'pennies' = individual coins.
The plural of a computer mouse can be 'mouses' or 'mice'.
|
Pronunciation
It is important to pronounce the s or es.
| /s/ sound after soft consonants
[no extra syllable] | /z/ sound after hard consonants and vowel sounds
[no extra syllable]
| /Iz/ sound after /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, z, /ks/ and /dʒ/
[This adds an extra syllable.] | Change y to i and add es when noun ends in a consonant and y
[no extra syllable] |
| reports shops t-shirts trips streets books students weeks
| managers bags years dogs holidays balls boys pens friends roads
| offices [sIz] wishes [ʃIz] watches [tʃIz] houses [zIz] pages [dʒIz] faxes [ksIz]
| lady lad story stories city cities baby babies fly flies |
Examples
One book 
Ten books 
One chair 
Five chairs 
One box 
Two boxes 
One page 
Two pages 
One price 
Three prices 
One puppy 
Two puppies 
One strawberry 
Nine strawberries 
