Most plurals are easy
Most nouns just add -s or -es: cat → cats, box → boxes. Irregular plurals follow other patterns.
| Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|
| Change the vowel | man → men, woman → women, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, goose → geese, mouse → mice |
| Add -en or -ren | ox → oxen, child → children |
| -f or -fe → -ves | leaf → leaves, knife → knives, wolf → wolves, half → halves (but roof → roofs, chief → chiefs) |
| -o → -oes | potato → potatoes, tomato → tomatoes, hero → heroes (but piano → pianos, photo → photos) |
| Stays the same | sheep → sheep, deer → deer, aircraft → aircraft, series → series |
| Words from Latin and Greek | cactus → cacti (or cactuses), fungus → fungi, crisis → crises, bacterium → bacteria, criterion → criteria |
| Compound words: the main word changes | brother-in-law → brothers-in-law, passer-by → passers-by |
Watch out! Don’t add an extra -s to a word that’s already plural: childrens ✘, feets ✘, teeths ✘.
Top tip: for a word like brother-in-law, ask “What is there more than one of?” There’s more than one brother, so that’s the word that changes.
🗂️ Plural patterns1 of 8
How does this word change when there is more than one?
👩
woman → women
🎮 Which spelling?Question 1 of 5