PLURAL of NOUNS prepared by mag.

Alenka GORTAN

PLURAL
Nouns in –o
+ -es
Echo-es, hero-es, Negro-es, potato-es, tomato-es, torpedo-es

Only –s
with newer words: ghetto-s, bolero-s, cello-s, fiasco-s, solo-s

Both –s and –es is correct with: banjo, cargo, fresco, manifesto, mosquito, motto, volcano,
tornado, zero.

Abbreviated nouns take only –s, as well as those in –oo: embryos, folios, radios, ratios,
studios, bamboos, cuckoos, Hindoos, kangaroos, shampoos, zoos

Proper nouns
-s or 's
There are two Margarets (Margaret's) in our class.
The I's and my's and me's in his speech pass the bounds of good taste.
The fours and sevens in your writing are so much alike that I cannot distinguish one from the
other.
There are three 2's in our phone number.
Cross your t's and add your i's.
I cannot read your s's (esiz).

Abbreviations –s only
What are the pros and cons ?
Only three MPs voted against the bill.

IRREGULAR PLURAL FORMATION

1. F-v +es
Calf –calves But:
Elf –elves Belief - beliefs
Half – halves Chief - chiefs
Knife – knives grief - griefs
Leaf – leaves prof - proofs
Life – lives but stil lifes roof - roofs
Loaf – loaves safe - safes
Sheaf – sheaves (snop, butara) strife - strifes
shelf – shelves BOTH:
Thief – thieves dwarf,
Wife – wives hoof (kopito, parkelj)
Wolf – wolves scarf
Self – selves wharf (pomol)

2. cloth – clothes (oblačila), cloths (krpe)

3. man – men, woman, businessman, goose – geese, mouse – mice, foot – feet
4. –en plural from OE: ox-oxen, brother – brethren, child – children
 PLURAL of NOUNS prepared by mag.
Alenka GORTAN

ZERO PLURAL takes normal determiners, the…

a) sheep, grouse (divja kura), salmon. The wolf took a sheep (two, many)
b) fish: cod (polenovka), carp, dace (klen), mackarel (skuša), trout
He caught a/three fish.
Fishes, trouts are used in biology to denote several kinds/species.

BUT:
Anchovy – anchovies (sardelica), sardine-sardines, sprat-sprats (vrsta slanika), sole-soles,
eel-eels(jegulja). We were packed like the sardines in a tin.

ALSO:
nouns denoting other sea animal take the regular plural: crabs (rakovica), lobsters, sea
urchins, sea horses.

NUMERICAL NOUNS
-hundred, thousand, million, dozen: several million people (functions as an adjective)
-pound, stone, foot: two pound fifty but two pounds; six foot three.

PLURAL ONLY
Alms (miloščina), barracks, a means (of transport), a gas works, series

COMPOUND NOUNS
1.(e)s ath the last word:lady bird-lady birds, fellow-passenger, boy-firend, maid-servant,
school-mate, tooth-brush, woman-hater, handful, breakdown, forget-me-not, good-for-
nothing, marry-go-round

2. man-men, Frenchman-Frenchmen, but: Normans, Romans, Germans,(not a compound)

3.Man –man when it denotes the sex of the compound: man friend-man friends; woman
doctor,