Purpose
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to correctly form the plural of regular and common irregular English nouns.
Lesson Explanation
Most English nouns form the plural by adding -s: book → books, car → cars.
Nouns ending in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z add -es instead: bus → buses, box → boxes, watch → watches.
Nouns ending in a consonant plus -y change y to i before adding -es: baby → babies. But if a vowel comes before the -y, just add -s: boy → boys.
Several common nouns are genuinely irregular and must be memorized individually, since they do not follow any -s pattern at all:
man → men woman → women child → children person → people foot → feet tooth → teeth
Practice Questions
1. Write the plural of “book.”
View Answer
books
2. Write the plural of “bus.”
View Answer
buses
3. Write the plural of “box.”
View Answer
boxes
4. Write the plural of “baby.”
View Answer
babies
5. Write the plural of “boy.”
View Answer
boys
6. Why does “baby” become “babies,” but “boy” only adds -s?
View Answer
Baby ends in a consonant + y (change to i, add -es); boy ends in a vowel + y (just add -s).
7. Write the plural of “child.”
View Answer
children
8. Write the plural of “man.”
View Answer
men
9. Write the plural of “foot.”
View Answer
feet
10. Is “children” a regular or irregular plural?
View Answer
Irregular.
11. Write the plural of “watch.”
View Answer
watches
12. Write the plural of “person.”
View Answer
people