![]() Think how “plays” would look if it were spelled “P-L- A-I-E-S.” That’s a lot of vowels smashed together! Proper nouns that end in ‘-y’ take an ‘-s’ So “journey” becomes “journeys.” “Play” becomes “plays.” And “cowboy” becomes “cowboys.”Īn easy way to remember this is to think of that vowel before the “-y.” If you were to change the “-y” to “-ies,” you’d be piling two more vowels at the end of the word. In contrast, if the “y” comes right after a vowel, we just add an “s” to the word to make it plural. If the “y” comes right after a consonant or the letters “qu,” we change the “y” to “ies.” For example, “lady” becomes “ladies.” “Baby” becomes “babies.” “Soliloquy” becomes “soliloquies.” With an -I-E-S at the end. If a noun ends with a sound that doesn’t slide smoothly into an “s” sound, you add “-es.” This happens a lot with words that end in sibilant sounds like “-sh,” “-ch,” “-x,” “-z,” and “-s.” For example, “church” becomes “churches.” “Buzz” becomes “buzzes.” And “box” becomes “boxes.”Ī similar pattern happens with words that end in “-y.” Common nouns that end in ‘-y’ take an ‘-ies’ those that end in ‘vowel + y’ take an ‘-s’ Opens in a new windowWondering about plurals like “children” and “oxen”? Look here! If a noun ends with a sound that merges gracefully with the “s” sound, you add an “-s.” For example, “dog” becomes “dogs,” and “cat” becomes “cats.” Most plurals are formed by adding ‘-s’ or ‘-es’įor example, most plurals are formed by simply adding “-s” or “-es” to the end of a word. The original “s” stays in place.Fortunately, in English, plurals do have some consistent rules. ![]() One of the most notable is that when you pluralize nouns that end in “is”, you change the “i” to an “e”. Unfortunately for those who find English grammar confusing, there are exceptions to the rules described above. The kids on the robotics team are whizzes at science. Nouns that end in “z” also follow this pattern, but in some cases you have to double the “z” and then add “es” at the end. Have you finished making all the lunches for the school picnic? The fairy granted the prince three wishes. To pluralize words like these, you just add an “s” rather than “es”). (An exception would be if the “ch” at the end of the noun makes a “k” sound, as is the case with “monarch” and “oligarch”. You also add an “e” followed by an “s” to pluralize nouns that end in “x”, “sh”, and “ch”. See how it works It also works for these letters… If you hear these sentences read aloud, you will notice that the “e” has a distinct sound that adds a syllable to the end of the word.įrustrated trying to follow complex English rules? Our expert editors can give you help in just minutes! When the bosses are away playing golf, the employees goof around and don’t get much work done. ![]() The two lead actresses in the play are truly exceptional. The scientists are conducting an experiment with three different gases.Īunt Mary has some lovely irises growing in her garden.īefore Google Maps existed, we used atlases. The artist has several blank canvases in his studio. Not only does that look odd, if you were to read it aloud, you would sound like a hissing snake.įor many nouns that end in “s”, you just need to add an “e” and then another “s” at the end. For example, if you have more than one dress, you wouldn’t write “dresss”. This is even more true if a noun already ends with “ss”. ![]() Whether someone is a native or non-native English speaker, they almost always sense that you can’t just add an “s” to the end of words such as “canvas”, “gas”, or “iris”. This is where the confusion usually starts. Try it now for free! What if a noun already has an “s” at the end? Easy and fast! English editing at everyday low prices!
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