Singular number is used when the noun refers to one item.

Plural number is used when the noun refers to more than

one item.Countable nouns have both singular and plural forms.Uncountable nouns and mass nouns do not normally
have a plural form. See Types of noun for more on the types of noun.The regular plural ending of an English noun is -s.

ca cat
t s
These are the exceptions to the normal pattern:

singular noun plural noun

ending ending

-s, -ss, -ch, -x, -zz -es

focus focuses

princess princesses

church churches

box boxes

buzz buzzes

-o -s or -es

hero heroes

piano pianos

potato potatoes

consonant + y -ies

baby babies

hobby hobbies

vowel + y -s

key keys

ray rays

-f -s or -ves

hoof hoofs or hooves

dwarf dwarfs or dwar

ves

thief thieves

roof roofs

-fe -ves

knife knives

life lives
Irregular plurals

Some nouns have two plural forms.

fis fish or fish

h es
Some of them have the same form in the singular and plural.

a ten sheep
sheep

a deer seven
deer
A few change a vowel to form the plural.

man men

wom wome
an n

foot feet

mous mice
e
Some nouns form the plural with -en.

chil childr
d en

ox oxen
Since it is not possible to give more than a selection of the irregular forms, you should check in a dictionary if you are
in doubt. If the dictionary does not show the plural form, then you can assume that it is regular.Compound
nouns normally form the plural by adding -s to the last word of the compound.

a games console three games

consoles

a bookcase two bookcases

an Indian two Indian

take-away take-aways
There are a few exceptions:A compound noun formed from a noun and an adverb makes the first word plural.

a several passers-
passer-by by
Compound nouns with woman as the first word make both words plural.

a woman several women doc

doctor tors
 a woman most women driver
driver s
A compound word which ends in -ful normally adds -s after -ful, but there is an alternative form with the -s following
the base noun.

a cupful three cupfuls/cupsful

a two spoonfuls/spoon
spoonful sful

Plural nouns with singular reference

Some nouns referring to clothes and tools where two equal parts are joined together, e.g. trousers,
binoculars, and tongs, are treated as being plural and are followed by a verb in the plural.

 My shorts are dirty.

 The scissors are on the table.
To talk about one of these items we can use the expression a pair of…

 John bought a pair of jeans.

To talk about more than one we talk about however many pairs of…

 Martina bought five pairs of tights.

 When they are used as ordinary numbers, words such as dozen and million have no plural form.
nine two
million stars dozen glasses
 When they are used to mean a large number, they do have a plural form, which can be used as a partitive.
 There are millions of pebbles on the beach.
 I saw dozens of children in the playground.

Foreign plurals

Nouns that have come into English from foreign languages can:

 keep the plural form of the language they come from.

an two axes
axis

a two
crisis crises
 have plurals formed according to the rules for plural in English.
a several
thesaurus thesauruses

(instead of
thesauri)
 have two plurals: one from the foreign language and the other formed according to the rules for plural
formation in English. The foreign plural is usually kept for scientific or specialized use.
an some indexes/indices
index
a some
formula formulas/formulae