English nouns can change their grammatical number, that is, to be singular or plural. This article discusses different ways of forming plural nouns in English.
Plural nouns
Nouns called countable are those parts of speech that can be counted. The plural ending of the English language is usually presented in spelling, adding the letter -s to the word in the singular. The phonetic form of the plural morpheme is [z]. When the previous sound is a soundless consonant, it is pronounced [s].
The plural of nouns in English can be represented in different ways. When the noun ends with the hissing sound [s], [ʃ], [ʧ], [z], [ʒ] or [ʤ] the plural is formed by adding [ɪz]. Morphologically, this postulate is sufficient to describe the plural rules in English. However, there are several complications in spelling.
- The -oes rule : most nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant also form their plurals, adding -es is pronounced [z]: potato - potatoes.
- The -s rule : nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant replace y and add -ies (pronounced [iz]): story - stories.
Note that countable nouns (especially for people or places) ending in y, preceded by a consonant, form their plurals by adding - ies: spy - spies.
Words ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form their plurals by adding - s: toy - toys.
But nevertheless, in English most of the nouns form the plural form by adding the ending s / es. These plural endings in a foreign language are the most popular. For example: ball - balls, train - trains.
Plural of uncountable nouns
In addition to traditional plural education, there are other plural rules in English. There are many other less used formation methods. The plural nouns in English are usually associated with older forms of the language or with external borrowings.
Some nouns look the same both in the singular and in the plural. Some of them are animal names:
Deer - deer, fish - fish (and many individual names for fish: cod, mackerel, trout, etc.), moose - elk, sheep - sheep.
Other nouns having equal endings in singular and plural forms include: aircraft - aircraft, blues - blues, cannon (sometimes cannons) - cannon, head - head.
The following is the formation of plurals in English, in the table.
| Nouns ending in -y | Nouns ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, -z | Nouns with -f, -fe at the end | Nouns ending in -o |
| baby - baby, baby | babies - kids, babies | bench - bench | benches - benches | leaf - leaf | leaves - leaves | studio - studio zoo - zoo | studios - studios zoo - zoos |
| butterfly - butterfly | butterflies - butterflies | box - box | boxes - boxes | wife - wife | wifes - spouses |
| daisy - daisy | daisies - daisies | bush - bush | bushes - shrubs | wolf - wolf | wolves - wolves |
| brush - brush | brushes - brushes | chief - chief | chiefs - chiefs |
The plural table in the English language reflects the features of changing the endings of nouns in different cases.
Germanic plural nouns
Some English words came to us from other languages and form their plural form according to the rules of the language from which they came. Most Germanic nouns used in English can be singular by adding -n or -en, resulting from an obsolete weak declension. For example: vax - vaxen, unix - unices.
Sometimes a conversion occurs by simply changing the vowel in a word called an umlaut (sometimes called a mutated plural): mouse - mice. If the words are borrowed from the German language, in this case in English the plural of nouns will be formed according to the rules of German.
Greek and Latin Nouns
Since English includes words from many ancestral languages, many borrowings come from Latin and classical Greek. Such nouns (especially Latin ones) often retain their original plurals, at least a little after their introduction. In some cases, both forms are still struggling for attention: for example, for appendix librarians - appendices, and for physicians appendix is appendixes.
Properly formed Latin plurals are most acceptable and are usually required in academic and scientific contexts. In general, plurals ending in -s are preferred.
The ending a becomes -ae (also -æ) or simply adds –s.
The ending of ex or ix becomes -ices, or simply adds –es.
Plural nouns in English coming from other languages
Some nouns of French origin add –x.
Slavic nouns add -a or -i according to their own rules or simply –s.
Hieroglyph nouns get -im or -ot according to their own rules or simply –s. Note that ot is pronounced as os in the Ashkenazi dialect.
Many nouns of Japanese origin are not plural and do not change. However, other nouns, such as kimonos, futons, and tsunamis, are more often found with English plural endings.
Plural and Exception Words in English
In addition to all the above features of the formation of the plural form in the language there are additional exceptions.
A number of nouns related to replacing the vowel in the root of the word when forming the plural, you just need to remember: f oo t - f ee t - legs, t oo th - t ee th - teeth, m a n - m e n - men, wom an - wom en - women, child - childr en - children, ox - ox en - bulls.