- Plural nouns are words that refer to more than one person, animal, thing, or concept. You can make most nouns plural by adding -s or -es.
- Singular nouns refer to one person, animal, thing, or concept, while plural nouns denote two or more of them.
- Irregular nouns do not follow the standard pluralization rule. Instead, you make them plural by changing their form entirely (e.g., man becomes men), adopting a unique ending (child becomes children), or keeping their singular form (sheep remains sheep).
- For regular nouns, add -s or -es to make them plural. To make regular nouns possessive, add -’s or just an apostrophe.
- Make compound nouns plural by making the main word in the compound, which is often the last word, plural.
Nouns—the part of speech that identifies people, places, things, and concepts—have the ability to show number. They can be singular, referring to one person, place, thing, or concept, or plural, referring to more than one of something.
The way a singular noun becomes plural is simple—for regular nouns, just add a letter or two: -s or -es. But that tiny change covers everything from the two shoes that make a pair to all the stars in the sky. Read on for a guide to plural nouns—how to form them, how they operate in sentences, and the rules that govern them.
Table of contents
Plural nouns vs. singular nouns
Plural nouns vs. possessive nouns
Common mistakes to avoid with plural nouns
What are plural nouns?
Plural nouns are words that represent two or more people, places, things, or ideas. You can identify most plural nouns by their endings: –s or -es after the singular form of the noun.
There are plenty of exceptions, however. For one thing, there are different rules for pluralizing singular nouns that end in certain letters. There are also nouns that are irregular in the way they become plural; irregular plurals do not follow any kind of rule for their form, so they have to be memorized or looked up in the dictionary.
Plural nouns vs. singular nouns
Nouns in English show number by being either singular or plural. Singular nouns represent one of something.
- one car
- a friend
- this daisy
- our child
Plural nouns, on the other hand, represent two or more of something.
- five cars
- a few friends
- these daisies
- our children
Plural nouns vs. possessive nouns
As with plural nouns, you form possessive nouns by adding a new ending to the singular form of a noun. Possessive nouns show ownership, and the ending they take on is usually -’s. So, if you had a friend named Marja, and Marja owned a bike, you would write “Marja’s bike.”
Plural nouns are often confused with possessive nouns because of the fact that the endings they both most commonly take on include an s. However, the apostrophe is the difference between plural and possessive nouns, and it’s an important one. Possessive nouns use it, but plural nouns don’t (unless they’re plural possessive nouns).
- Singular: boss (Example: My boss is very supportive of our team.)
- Singular possessive: boss’s (Example: I need to finish the report before my boss’s deadline.)
- Plural: bosses (Example: Our bosses have different management styles.)
- Plural possessive: bosses’ (Example: The bosses’ decisions greatly impacted the company’s direction.)
- Singular: treat (Example: She gave her dog a treat for good behavior.)
- Singular possessive: treat’s (Example: The treat’s wrapper was colorful and shiny.)
- Plural: treats (Example: The kids enjoyed the Halloween treats.)
- Plural possessive: treats’ (Example: The treats’ flavors were a big hit at the party.)
- Singular: candy (Example: She unwrapped a candy and popped it into her mouth.)
- Singular possessive: candy’s (Example: The candy’s sweetness was irresistible.)
- Plural: candies (Example: The jar was filled with colorful candies.)
- Plural possessive: candies’ (Example: The candies’ flavors varied from sour to sweet.)
How do plural nouns work?
To make a regular noun plural, you add -s or -es to the end, depending on the singular noun’s ending letter. Sometimes, letters of the singular form are changed to create the plural form, such as with half and its plural form, halves. We’ll go into detail about which words get which suffixes in the next section.
Irregular plural nouns are an exception. They have their own unique plural forms, such as mice, the plural of mouse, and geese, the plural of goose.
To be in subject-verb agreement, plural nouns acting as subjects of sentences or clauses need plural verbs, as in this example:
It’s also important to remember that when a noun is plural, any pronoun referring to it should also be plural:
Most nouns can be turned into plural nouns, including collective nouns, which represent groups:
- one team
- two teams
Plural nouns vs. mass nouns
Unlike collective nouns, mass nouns, also known as uncountable or noncount nouns, almost never have plural forms, even when they represent multiple things. What makes them uncountable and not pluralizable is either that they are abstract (like honesty or music) or that they refer to something made up of multiple people or objects in the aggregate, treating it as one undifferentiated unit rather than made up of distinct components (like silverware or paperwork).
Some mass nouns have senses in which they are countable, and when used that way, they do have plurals. Here are a couple of examples of nouns that are mass in some contexts and countable in others.
- Mass: Chicken is a good source of protein.
- Countable: We saw several chickens running around the barnyard.
- Mass: She studied art as an undergraduate.
- Countable: Theater is one of the performing arts.
Plural noun rules
The correct spelling of plurals usually depends on what letter the singular form of a noun ends in.
1 To make most regular nouns plural, add –s:
- thing – things
- year – years
- way – ways
- school – schools
2 To make nouns that end in j, s, sh, x, z, or a soft ch (as in sandwich, not monarch) plural, add -es (notice that this makes the plural pronounceable):
- business – businesses
- rush – rushes
- fox – foxes
- lunch – lunches
3 To pluralize common nouns that end in a consonant followed by y, or that end in qu followed by y, change the y to i and then add -es (singular proper nouns that end in y follow the usual pattern of adding -s):
- party – parties
- soliloquy – soliloquies
- baby – babies
4 To make nouns ending in a consonant followed by o plural, you usually add -es, while those ending in a vowel followed by o usually take -s:
- potato – potatoes
- radio – radios
However, there are many nouns ending in a consonant followed by o that do not follow the above pattern (you can always look up the plural form of a word ending in o in a dictionary if you’re not sure):
- photo – photos
- avocado – avocados
5 For most nouns that end with f or ef, add -s to form the plural:
- roof – roofs
- chef – chefs
- chief – chiefs
There are exceptions, however. For some nouns ending this way, you must change the f or ef to ve before adding s:
- wife – wives
- wolf – wolves
6 For many words that come from Latin or Greek, the preferred pluralization in English follows the original language:
- stimulus – stimuli
- criterion – criteria
- ellipsis – ellipses
7 There are a handful of words in English that end in a single z preceded by a vowel and require doubling the z and then adding -es for pluralization:
- fez – fezzes
- whiz – whizzes
Irregular plural nouns
There are many English nouns that are irregular in the way they change form to become plural, which means they follow no established pattern. It’s best to memorize these or look them up in a dictionary. Here are a few examples:
- child – children
- foot – feet
- goose – geese
- man – men
- mouse – mice
- person – people
- tooth – teeth
- woman – women
Nouns that are both singular and plural
While the preceding section goes into how some English nouns are irregular in the way they change form to become plural, there’s another group of nouns whose plurals are irregular in a different way: They don’t change form at all to become plural. Many of these are the names of animals:
- bison – bison
- deer – deer
- elk – elk
- fish – fish
- sheep – sheep
There are nonanimal nouns whose plural forms match their singular ones as well:
- counsel (as in lawyer) – counsel
- craft (as in vessel, like a boat or plane) – craft
- series – series
- species – species
You need to see these nouns in context to identify them as singular or plural. Consider the following sentence:
However, some words of this kind, including fish, do have contexts in which the more standard plural is used. Fishes, for example, is often used to refer to multiple species of fish, especially in scientific contexts.
Plurals of compound nouns
With compound nouns—whether they are open, hyphenated, or closed up—it is typically the main part of the compound (the part that is modified by the rest of the compound) that changes form to make the whole compound plural:
- mother-in-law – mothers-in-law
- return on investment – returns on investment
- passerby – passersby
Even when a compound noun is made up of two nouns, there is a modifying noun (called an attributive noun) and a main noun. The modifying noun nearly always comes first, and the main noun, usually the second one, changes form:
- toothbrush – toothbrushes
- wage earner – wage earners
- apartment building – apartment buildings
Dictionaries list the plurals for the trickiest compound nouns, so when in doubt—look it up.
Common mistakes to avoid with plural nouns
To keep your writing mistake-free, there are a few pitfalls related to plural nouns that you should watch out for.
Confusing irregular plural forms
Irregular plurals can be tricky because they don’t follow the standard -s or -es rule (for example, you might mistakenly use womans instead of women). The best way to avoid this is to memorize irregular plural forms, practice them, and consult a dictionary when unsure.
Misusing fewer and less with plural nouns
Be aware of the difference between the quantifiers fewer and less and which nouns each can modify:
- Fewer is used with plural count nouns. (Example: She counted fewer ants in her kitchen today than she did yesterday.)
- Less is used with singular mass nouns. (Example: I’m likely to get a headache on days when I drink less water.)
Misplacing apostrophes in plural possessives
Pay attention to apostrophes in plural possessive forms: Don’t leave them out, and don’t put them in the wrong spot.
Mismatching subject-verb agreement
Ensure the subject of your clause matches the verb in number, even when a prepositional phrase follows the subject.
Plural nouns are fundamental to English grammar. Confidence in identifying them, forming them, and using them correctly is an invaluable asset for your writing.
Plural noun FAQs
What is a plural noun?
A plural noun is the form a noun takes to denote more than one person, place, thing, or idea. For most nouns, you simply add -s or -es to make them plural.
What are some examples of plural nouns?
Kids is the plural form of the noun kid. Some nouns have an irregular plural form; for instance, the plural noun of child is children, not childs.
What is the difference between singular and plural nouns?
Singular nouns represent only one thing, but plural nouns represent more than one. If someone stands alone, we call them a person (singular), but if there’s more than one person, we call them people (plural).
Are there nouns with multiple plural forms?
Some nouns have a primary plural form along with an alternate one, or different forms that are primary in different contexts (examples include indexes/indices and cacti/cactuses). Dictionaries list the primary form before the alternate one and list which forms are identified with which contexts.
What are plural compound nouns?
In compound nouns, the main noun changes form to make the whole compound plural: rattlesnakes, hangers-on, attorneys general.
