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Better writing

Plurals of nouns

Most nouns form their plurals by simply adding –s to the end (e.g., cat/cats, book/books, journey/journeys). There are a number of exceptions to this rule, which are explained below.

Nouns ending in -y

If the noun ends with a consonant plus -y, make the plural by changing -y to -ies:

singular	plural
berry	berries
activity	activities
daisy	daisies

Nouns ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z

If the noun ends with -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, add -es to form the plural:

singular	plural
church	churches
bus	buses
fox	foxes
blintz	blintzes

There is one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a ‘k’ sound, you add -s rather than -es:

singular	plural
stomach	stomachs
epoch	epochs

Nouns ending in -f or -fe

With nouns that end in a consonant or a single vowel plus -f or -fe: change the -f or -fe to -ves:

singular	plural
knife	knives
half	halves

Nouns that end in two vowels plus -f usually form plurals in the normal way, with just an -s:

singular	plural
chief	chiefs
spoof	spoofs

Nouns ending in -o

Nouns ending in -o can add either -s or -es in the plural, and some can be spelled either way.

As a general rule, most nouns ending in -o add -s to make the plural:

singular	plural
solo	solos
zero	zeros
avocado	avocados

Those that have a vowel before the final -o always just add -s:

singular	plural
studio	studios
zoo	zoos
embryo	embryos

Here’s a list of the most common nouns ending in -o that are always spelled with -es in the plural:

singular	plural
echo	echoes
embargo	embargoes
hero	heroes
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
torpedo	torpedoes
veto	vetoes

Here are some of the common nouns ending in -o that can be spelled with either -s or -es in the plural:

singular	plural
banjo	banjos or banjoes
buffalo	buffalos or buffaloes
cargo	cargos or cargoes
domino	dominos or dominoes
flamingo	flamingos or flamingoes
fresco	frescos or frescoes
ghetto	ghettos or ghettoes
halo	halos or haloes
mango	mangos or mangoes
memento	mementos or mementoes
mosquito	mosquitos or mosquitoes
motto	mottos or mottoes
tornado	tornados or tornadoes
tuxedo	tuxedos or tuxedoes
volcano	volcanos or volcanoes