English as an Additional Language/Plural forms of nouns

Generally, making plurals (more than 1 of something) is very easy in English.

Plural Formation

For almost all nouns we form the plural by adding s.

• I have an apple
• I have 5 apples.

For nouns which end with the letter y we form the plural by removing the y and adding ies.

• I have a fly
• I have 5 flies.

For nouns which end with the letter s (dress), ch (beach), x (box), sh (bush) or z (quiz), we form the plural by adding es.

• I have a bus.
• I have 5 buses.

There are also a small number of nouns which are very irregular. The first word in the following list is the singular form and the second word is the plural form:

• child - children
• man - men
• woman - women
• foot - feet
• tooth - teeth
• goose - geese
• mouse - mice
• fish - fish
• sheep - sheep
• deer - deer

As you can see, with some words there is no change to form the plural. The plural form and the singular form are exactly the same.