Plural nouns with 's', 'es', and 'ies'

The plural ending of a noun is usually s but it is sometimes es, ies, or irregular.

Singular noun = 1 telephone   Image 

Plural noun = 2 telephones.          ImageImage 
 


 

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'.

 

 

  

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  ladyi + es = ladies

story                    stories

city                       cities

baby                     babies

fly                         flies 

 


 One book  Image                       Ten books   Image 

 One chair     swivel chair chaise à roulettes office chair chaise de bureau                    Five chairs     swivel chair chaise à roulettes meuble furniture

One box    Image                 Two boxes    Image

One page  page sheet paper blank                  Two pages    notebook pages sheets blank lined 

One price  price cost dollars prix              Three prices  Prices cost  

One puppy   dog; pet; animal; puppies; puppy         Two puppies  dog; pet; animal; dogs; puppies; puppy 

One strawberry   Strawberry fraise fruit food eat        Nine strawberries  strawberry fruit food berry healthy sweet