Plural

1. Plural Only for COUNTABLE nouns

2. Regular plural • We add - s / -es • Example: cups, girls, boys, trees, churches, buses, boxes (because of pronunciation) + potatoes, tomatoes, heroes, echoes, torpedoes, vetoes, embargoes(!) • Spelling changes: • If a noun ends in a consonant + -y, the –y changes into –i and we add –es: e.g. family → families, baby → babies BUT: a play → plays(because there is a vowel before –y)

3. Irregular plural (1) • 1)f (in sinuglar) changes into v (in plural) and we add -es: knife → knives, wolf → wolves, leaf → leaves, half → halves, thief → thieves, wife → wives , shelf → shelves, life → lives , calf → calves, loaf → loaves, self → selvesetc. BUT: roof → roofs, sheriff → sheriffs • 2)-oo- (in singular) changes into -ee- (in plural) : tooth → teeth, goose → geese, foot → feet • 3)–ou- (in singular) changes into –i- (in plural) : mouse → mice, louse → lice

4. Irregular plural (2) • 4) We add –en (in plural) : child → children, ox → oxen • 5)-a- (in singular) changes into -e- (in plural) : man → men, woman → women, fireman → firemen etc. • 6) Some nouns have the same form for both singular and plural: fish, sheep, deer, trout, cod, offspring, crossroads, dice, species, series, means, gallows, headquarters, barracks

5. Irregular plural (3) • 7) Completely different plural: person (man) → people • 8) Nouns of a foreign origin: • oasis → oases, thesis → theses, • crisis → crises, diagnosis → diagnoses, basis → bases, analysis → analyses, criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena, curriculum → curricula, bacterium → bacteria, medium → media, syllabus → syllabi, focus → foci, cactus → cacti, bacillus → bacilli, stimulus → stimuli etc.