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Child Children Die Dice Foot Feet Goose Louse Lice: Singluar Plural Notes
Child Children Die Dice Foot Feet Goose Louse Lice: Singluar Plural Notes
Child Children Die Dice Foot Feet Goose Louse Lice: Singluar Plural Notes
Also applies to the names of other animals that end in ox, such as
ox oxen
musk-ox
Contents
1 Regular plurals
2 Almost-regular plurals
3 Irregular plurals
4 Plurals of numbers
5 Defective nouns
6 Nouns with multiple plurals
7 Plurals of "headless" nouns
8 Plural to singular by back formation
9 Plurals of names of peoples
Regular plurals
The plural morpheme in English is suffixed to the end of most nouns. The plural form is
usually represented orthographically by adding -s to the singular form (see exceptions
below). The phonetic form of the plural morpheme is /z/ by default. When the preceding
sound is a voiceless consonant (see phonation), it is pronounced /s/. Examples:
boy boys
girl girls
cat cats
chair chairs
Where a noun ends in a sibilant sound—such as s, sh, x, soft ch—the plural is formed
by adding es (also pronounced as z with a neutral vowel sound or short i):
glass glasses
dish dishes
witch witches
The -oes rule: most nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant also form their plurals
by adding -es (pronounced /z/):
hero heroes
potato potatoes
volcano volcanoes
The -ies rule: nouns ending in a y preceded by a consonant drop the y and add -ies
(pronounced /:iz/):
cherry cherries
lady ladies
Note, however, that proper nouns (particularly those for people or places) ending in a y
preceded by a consonant form their plurals regularly:
This does not apply to words that are merely capitalised common nouns:
henry henrys
zloty zlotys
Almost-regular plurals
Many nouns of Italian or Spanish origin are exceptions to this rule:
canto cantos
grotto grottos
piano pianos
portico porticos
quarto quartos
solo solos
Most nouns ending in f or fe form their plurals by changing the f into a v and adding es:
calf calves
half halves
wolf wolves
wharf wharves
life lives
proof proofs
muff muffs
Irregular plurals
There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals. While they may seem
quirky, they usually stem from older forms of English or from foreign borrowings.
The plural of a few Germanic nouns can also be formed from the singular by adding n
or en, stemming from the obsolete dual:
The word box, referring to a computer, is semi-humorously pluralized boxen in the Leet
dialect. Multiple Vax computers, likewise, are sometimes called Vaxen.
The plural is sometimes formed by simply changing the vowel sound of the singular, in
a process called ablaut (these are sometimes called mutated plurals):
foot feet
goose geese
louse lice
man men
mouse mice
tooth teeth
woman women
Some nouns have singular and plural alike, although they are sometimes seen as regular
plurals:
sheep
deer
cod
series
trout
Because English includes words from so many ancestral languages, as well as many
loanwords from Classical Greek and Latin and other modern languages, there are many
other forms of plurals. Such nouns often retain their original plurals, at least for some
time after they are introduced. In some cases both forms are still vying for attention: for
example, for a librarian, the plural of appendix is appendices (following the original
language); for physicians, however, the plural of appendix is appendixes. Likewise, a
radio engineer works with antennas and an entomologist deals with antennae. The
"correct" form is the one that sounds better in context, or that people in the field use.
Correctly formed Latin plurals are the most acceptable, and indeed are often required, in
academic and scientific contexts. In common usage, back-formed plurals are sometimes
preferred. (See below for another kind of back-formed plural.)
vertex vertices
index indices / indexes
Final is becomes es:
axis axes
testis testes
crisis crises
Final on becomes a:
addendum addenda
memorandum memoranda / memorandums
medium media
Final us becomes i (second declension) or era or ora (third declension)—or just
adds es (especially in fourth declension, where it would otherwise be the same as
the singular):
radius radii
alumnus alumni
viscus viscera
corpus corpora
stigma stigmata
stoma stomata
zeugma zeugmata
The Greek plural for words ending in -pus meaning "foot", is podes, but this plural is
not used in English.
beau beaux
chateau chateaux
Nouns of Hebrew language origin add im or ot (generally m/f)—or just s
Note that ot is pronounced os in the Ashkenazi dialect.
kimono kimono
samurai samurai
otaku otaku
Note: kimonos, following the French model, is now generally accepted in English.
Nouns from languages that have donated few words to English, and that are spoken by
relatively few English-speakers, generally form plurals as if they were native English
words:
canoe canoes
kayak kayaks
igloo igloos
cwm cwms (Welsh valley)
Some words of foreign origin are much better known in the plural; usage of the proper
singular may be considered pedantic or actually incorrect by some speakers. In common
usage, the proper plural is considered the singular form. Back-formation has usually
resulted in a regularized plural.
Note: A single piece of data is often referred to as a data point. A military phalanx is
pluralized phalanxes. The phalanges as body parts (fingers and toes) are rarely referred
to in the singular.
A related phenomenon is the confusion of a foreign plural for its singular form:
phenomenon phenomena
criterion criteria
symposium symposia
Plurals of numbers
Plurals for the names of numbers differ according to how they are used. Such words
include dozen, hundred, thousand, million, and so forth. The following examples apply
to all of these.
When modified by a number, the plural is not inflected, that is, has no s added.
Hence one hundred, two hundred , etc. For vaguer large numbers, one could say
several hundred, but many hundreds.
Defective nouns
Some nouns have no singular form:
Note, however, that these words are interchangeable with a pair of scissors, a pair of
trousers, and so forth. Nor are scissor, trouser, tweezer, or pant the names of the
individual parts. However, the fashion industry frequently calls a single pair of pants a
pant; this is a back-formation. (See below for another kind of back-formed plural.)
Some words in which the modifier follows the noun form the plural inside the word or
phrase, particularly legal terms from French:
It is common in informal speech to pluralise the last word in the usual way, but in edited
prose, the forms given are preferred.
Non-countable, or "mass" nouns do not represent distinct objects, so the singular and
plural semantics do not apply in the same way. Some examples:
Abstract nouns
Some mass nouns can be pluralized, but the meaning thereof may change slightly. For
example, when I have two pieces of sand, I do not have two sands; I have sand. There is
more sand in your pile, not more sands. But there could be many "sands of Africa" -
either many distinct stretches of sand, or distinct types of sand of interest to geologists
or builders, or simply the allusive sands of Africa.
It is rare to pluralize furniture in this way. Nor would information be so treated, except
in the case of criminal informations, which are prosecutor's briefs similar to
indictments.
There is only one class of atoms called oxygen, but there are several isotopes of oxygen,
which might be referred to as different oxygens. In casual speech, oxygen might be used
as shorthand for "oxygen atoms", but in this case it is not a mass noun, so it is entirely
sensible to refer to multiple oxygens in the same molecule.
One would interpret "Bob's wisdoms" as various pieces of Bob's wisdom (that is, pieces
of advice), deceits as a series of instances of deceitful behavior, and the different
idlenesses of the worker as plural distinct manifestations of the mass concept of idleness
(or as different types of idleness, "bone lazy" versus "no work to do").
Specie and species make a fascinating case. Both words come from a Latin word
meaning "kind", but they do not form a singular-plural pair; they are separate
non-countable nouns. Coins, such as nickels, euros, and cents are specie, but
there is no plural. The idea is "payment in kind". And species, the "kinds of
living things", is the same in singular and plural.
Some names of elements, such as nickel, have plurals in non-chemical uses, as
"five nickels to the quarter".
Symbols and abbreviations whose plural would be ambiguous if only an s were added
are pluralized by adding 's.
The computer mouse is often pluralized mouses, although, in this case, mice is just as
common because of the physical similarity between the input device and the rodent.
Kudos is a singular Greek word meaning praise, but the same process may be happening
to it. At present, kudo is an error, however.
In discussing peoples whose demonym takes -man or -woman, there are two options:
pluralize to -men or -women if referring to individuals, and use the root alone if
referring to the whole nation.
Englishman Englishmen the English
Frenchwoman Frenchwomen the French
Dutchman or Dutch people the Dutch
Dutchwoman
This also applies to the Irish and the Welsh. One can say "a Scots(wo)man" or "a Scot",
"Scots(wo)men", "Scottish people", or "Scots," and "the Scottish" or "the Scots".
(Scotch is a drink.)
Several peoples have names that are simple nouns and can be pluralized:
Ojibwa Ojibwa
Iroquois Iroquois
Blood Blood
Mi'kmaq Mi'kmaq
Inuk Inuit
Names of most other peoples of the world are pluralized using the normal English rules.