Grammar: Word classes: Nouns: Noun formation

Singular and plural forms

Plural nouns with regular patterns

Countable nouns have a singular form and a plural form. The plural form usually ends in '-s', but not always:

singular	plural
cat book apple	cats books apples

Pronunciation of plural nouns

You can help your students by focusing on the three possible pronunciations for plural 's':

beliefs books maps cats maths	buses prizes ages bushes	arms bottles cards girls legs

Note that the sound is the most common. A useful rule of thumb is to pronounce the plural when the 's' follows one of the following sounds: '', '', '', '' and soft '' as in maths. The pronunciation is only used after '', '', '', '', '' or '' sounds.

What rules can I give my students for forming plurals?

If the noun ends in '-s', '-x', '-z', '-ch', '-sh', then the plural is formed by adding '-es':

singular	plural
circus box quiz branch bush	circuses boxes quizzes branches bushes

If the noun ends in a consonant plus '-y', then the plural is formed by replacing the '-y'  with '-ies':

For more information, see

	Text types: Instructions: Using countable and uncountable nouns
	Text types: Instructions: Recipes: Using countable and uncountable nouns in a recipe