We love watching foreign influencers who tell us about life in Romania (or Romanians who tell us life in their country.) Well, not all of them. Immigrant expats are more interesting than tourist expats. A lot of tourist expats claim they are moving to Romania, and next thing we see, they are in Malaysia or something.
One of the influencers, also from Eastern Europe, spoke about chickens on his video about how Romania was more free. In the comments, he was told that chicken was plural of chick. No, it’s not. Chicken the the adult. Chick is the baby, the yellow creature just out of the egg.
Regular nouns
Regular nouns follow a simple rule. If they end in a non-s and non-s-like sound, then you add an -s. However, if they end in an s sound (s, z, sh, x), then you add an -es. This makes it easier to understand that the word is indeed plural, as the x, s, sh, and z sounds already sound like they end in s, so the added syllable clarifies things in spoken English.
Non-s-like
Table – tables, snake – snakes, chick – chicks. Chicken- chickens. Hen – hens. Rooster – roosters.
S and s-like
boss – bosses, loss – losses.
Dish – dishes,
box – boxes. fox – foxes.
And when the last e is silent, it’s not if it follows an s-like sound in the plural. Size has one syllable. Sizes has two syllables.
Ending in y.
If the noun ends in y, then the y will change to i and es will be added. So, the “y” will often be plurales to “ies.” It will sound like you just added an s.
remedy – remedies
Family – families.
Man and woman compounds.
One man, two men. One woman, two women. The an to en is rare, but there are other words that end in man or woman.
Like nationalities (Kind of archaic, but still used)
Englishman. – Englishmen. Frenchman, Frenchwoman.
And job titles.
Cameraman – cameramen, Policeman – policeman. Fireman – Firemen. Policewoman – policewomen.
Again, this is old fashioned. Many people now say police officer or camera operator, so you just have to add an s.
(But not German, Gerwoman, unless you want to be funny. And usually not draughtsman, draughtswoman).
and fantasy creatures
Merman – mermen
-en: Ox, child, brother their compounds.
The only normal English word that plurals by adding en is “ox” and its compounds.
Ox – oxen
muskox – muskoxen.
Then, there is one that plurals by adding -ren.
Child – children.
Any compounds of child will do the same, like Stepchild – stepchildren.
The third is brother to brethren. Brother can also plural to brothers, but in a religious context, we often say the more archaic brethren. It might also be used for clubs.
There aren’t many compounds that use brethren. Step-brothers would sound more common in most accents. But I suppose you could say step-brethren if you were talking about members of a church that was kind of related to yours (or if two churches merged.)
Note that most nouns that end in -en are not plurals but are singular. Chicken is singular, chickens is plural. (Plural of chick is chicks. Chicks are baby chickens.)
Funny compounds
When a compound word is pluraled, it is usually the last part that has changed. However, if the first part is the most important, and it is compounded with a lesser term, then the first term is pluraled. Usually the human word is more important, and any description words are less so. Often the human word comes at the end of the compound, and when it comes at the front there are hyphens.
Mother-in-law – mothers-in-law. General-in-chief – generals-in-chief. Man-of-war – men-of-war.
Horseman of the apocalypse – horsemen of the apocalypse.
There are many mothers, just one law. Many men, just one war. Many generals, just one position. There are many horsemen, just one apocalypse.
There are a few double plurals:
Man-servant – men-servants. Woman-servant – women-servants. (This is weird, but it follows the rule of man, woman and their compounds.)
Unchanged plurals
Some nouns never changed in the plural, because they were neutre in old English. The only two most learners need to know are fish and sheep.
One fish, two fish.
One sheep, two sheep.
one deer, two deer.
Multiple plurals for the same singular
Some homophones have a regular and an irregular plural. Of these, the most common is die.
Die for stamping is pluraled to dies. (Don’t worry, most native speakers don’t know what a die for stamping is.) And die for gambling is pluraled to dice. (Again, don’t worry, most native speakers only use the plural dice.)
penny – pennies (single coin and figures of speech) pence (british currency value)
Fish – some people use fishes for counting.
horse – horses for animals, horse for cavalry (rare)
Cloth – plural cloths is for piece of cloth or kinds of cloth. Clothes for garments, things you wear.
Other shape changers
Foot – feet
Goose – geese.
Tooth – teeth
Mouse-mice
louse – lice
Compounds would be treated the same.
wisdom tooth – wisdom teeth.
Body louse – body lice
Latin words us – i , um – a, and is-ese
Some people plural octopus to octopi. And most will plural fungus to fungi. Magus is usually used in its plural, magi (this is normally used in a religious or holiday context, as in the magi, the kings who saw baby Jesus). There are other us words, but they are not common.
Alumnus – alumni
(you need a degree to use Latin words with funny plurals like this, honestly.)
fundus-fundi.
(Yes, fundus is a word. What does it mean? Read a dictionary, that is what a native speaker would do. It means the far end of a few things, like an aperture, an eye, a stomach, and other organs. So, the back of the eye, a part of the stomach, another part of the brain… No, it is not common, most native speakers would think it was a typo for fungus-fungi.)
non-latin words that end in us are pluraled by added es.
Ruckus – ruckuses.
Proper nouns (capitalised names) ending in -us, like Angus, are also pluraled by adding es or ‘s.
Angus-Anguses.
No one really talks about bacteria in the singular, but if they did, it would be bacterium.
Other um-a are usually used in the plural
Erratum – errata
memorandum – memoranda
Academics might be interested in:
Thesis – theses.
Other than this, you only would be likely to find them in an academic context.
‘s plurals
Sometimes, you will see ‘s used to make plurals. This will be letters, numbers written as figures (1,2), and other symbols.
Don’t forget to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.
1’s and 2’s on that side, 3’s and 4’s on this side.
Remember to use shift to type your &’s #’s and @’s
This is done for clarity. If you put an s after i, it becomes is. An s after a becomes as. An s after a digit looks like a 5.
Always plural or always singular
A few words are almost always used in the plural or singular.
Abstract nouns tend to be in singular (not a linguistic rule, just a generalisation.)
wrath, anger, sadness, joy, perserverence, indignation, satisfaction, attraction, corruption.
In normal conversation, anger is just a thing. However, if you really think there are different kinds of anger, then maybe you can use a plural. Most people would just say kinds of anger, types of satisfaction.
Also, words that are almost abract tend to be in singular. The kind of relationship, kind of family, kind of business, kind of government, etc
polygamy, monogamy, matrimony, democracy, theocracy, monopoly
Specific Natural Sciences and a lot of scientific phenomenon also tend to be in singular (except for physics). This isn’t a grammatical thing, it’s more a way of looking at things.
Biology, psychology, electricity, gravity
(Theoretically, if you are writing sci-fi or polemics, you could make plurals of these. For instance, if you wanted to contrast freudian psychology with the thoughts of other thinkers, I see nothing wrong with using the word “psychologies.”)
Funny exceptions exist.
Nouns only in plural
trousers, scissors, pincers, tongs, annals, billiards, proceeds, dregs, lees.
Those are listed in order of commonness.
Most English speakers will not know what lees are. It is almost the same as dregs, the left over crud after you drink something. Yuck! There is also a “lee” in singular, related to boats, again, no one knows what it means except specialists.
Nouns that change meaning when pluraled (mostly materials)
Iron. The normal plural of the metal is also iron (like sheep and deer).
Irons are a device used to restrict the movement of humans or animals.
The metal is brass, assumed to be one large mass of the metal.
brasses refer to brass tablets (very rare and archaic)
glass is similar. It is singular for the material, but can be singular or plural for the drinking glasses, and always plural for the kind of “glasses” that you put on your face to help you see better or protect your eyes.
So, the material is always singular, the eyewear is always plural, and the drinking vessel, well, that acts like a normal noun.
Plural in form, singular in sense
News, measels.
Titled names
Proper nouns with titles Mister, Mrs, Ms, Miss, and Master have funny plurals. What if you are addressing two or more people with the same title and the same name? (dizzyness normally staying in the singular.)
Mr. Smith – the Messrs. Smith
Mrs. Smith – the Mrs Smiths.
Miss Smith – The Misses Smith (or – the Miss Smiths).
Ms Smith – The Ms Smiths.
Master Smith – the Masters Smith.
Why do the women get an s and the men not? I challenge you to find a native speaker who uses those. Perhaps the royal family and their secretaries. If you find someone who does so, ask them.
The simple way
If you act like every noun is regular, people will understand you. Many native speakers will say muskoxes instead of muskoxen, or fishes instead of fish. It might sound funny or cute at first, but people will understand you.
Most irregular plurals are so uncommon that it’s not worth learning them unless you are a professional translator or teach English for a living. If you listen to native speakers long enough, you’ll pick them up.
Womans and mans might sound a bit more funny, so the first irregulars to learn would be men and women. Just remember to add the -es to sounds that sound like -s (s, sh, z, x) and just an -s to other words, and you should be okay.
