symbols

~ tilde or tweedle or squiggly line. Also used as a swung dash and in mathematics with other signs to mean approximately and in logic sometimes used to mean not. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde, ` grave accent or stress mark. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_accen . ! exclamation point or exclamation mark'. Used to end an emphatic sentence. Also often used in computer languages to mean not and in mathematics to indicate factorial'. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation . @ at sign or commercial at sign. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign . # number sign or pound sign' or octothorpe or hash mark $ dollar sign, for example $29.00 would be read as twenty-nine dollars' % percent sign, so 50% is fifty per cent'' ^ caret or up-arrow head or circumflex accent. Often used on computers to indicate the following symbol(s) would be superscripted in normal typography, that is 5^23 is the same as 5. Sometimes called a carrot by the illiterate. & and sign or ampersand. An abbreviation symbol for and. * asterisk or star ( opening parenthesis ) closing parenthesis _ low line, underbar, underline, underscore - hyphen-minus, hyphen, minus: a typewriter symbol used for both hyphen and minus. Sometimes, when spaces appear on both sides of it, it represents a dash, but a dash is more often built from two hyphen-minuses. In normal typography for dashes there is an en-dash () and an em-dash () which are different characters. + "plus sign = equal sign | vertical line, vertical bar, pipe \ backslash < less than sign

> greater than sign , comma . period, full stop, decimal point ? question mark / slash, virgule, also usually used on computers as a division slash or solidus, though in normal typography the division slash is more slanted. Misnamed SOLIDUS by Unicode. " quotation marks or straight quotation marks or typewriter quotation marks. Originally a typewriter substitute for (opening quotation marks), (closing quotation marks), (double prime used to mean inches and seconds), and (ditto mark). ' apostrophe'' or single quotation mark or straight apostrophe or typewriter apostrophe or straight single quotation mark or typewriter single quotation mark. Originally a typewriter substitute for (opening single quotation mark), (closing single quotation mark or apostrophe), (single prime used to mean feet in measurement and to mean minutes) : colon, a punctuation mark ; semi-colon, a punctuation mark

The Rules of Regular and Irregular Plurals

For most nouns, just add -s
Singular hand rabbit key clock football door Plural hands rabbits keys clocks footballs doors

For nouns ending in s, x, z, ch or sh, add -es

Singular box pitch wish boss buzz glass Plural boxes pitches wishes bosses buzzes glasses

For some words ending in o, add -es

Singular potato tomato hero echo banjo Plural potatoes tomatoes heroes echoes banjoes

However, for some words ending in o, just add -s

Singular cello disco hairdo logo patio photo Plural cellos discos hairdos logos patios photos pianos radios

The plural of many words ending in o can be spelt with -s or -es.

piano radio

For some words ending in f, change the f to a v and add -es

Singular half loaf elf leaf self shelf thief wolf Plural halves loaves elves leaves selves shelves thieves wolves

However, for some words ending in f, just add -s

Singular chef cliff ref roof Plural chefs cliffs refs roofs

The plural of some nouns ending in f can be spelt using either variation.

For some nouns ending in ife, change the f to a v and then add -s
Singular wife life knife Plural wives lives knives

For common nouns that end with consonant + y, change the y to an i and then add -es
Singular poppy fly penny spy nappy sty Plural poppies flies pennies spies nappies sties

Some nouns are the same in both singular and plural from
Singular fish sheep deer tuna salmon trout Plural fish sheep deer tuna salmon trout

For some nouns, change other letters or just change the word completely!
Singular person child ox foot tooth goose mouse louse man Plural people children oxen feet teeth geese mice lice men

S endings
- /iz/ pronunciation .- (s, z, sh, sion, ch, j) - /s/ pronunciation .- (p, t, k, f, th) - /z/ pronunciation .- (b, d, g, v, th, m, n, ng, l, r)