The Most Common Irregular Plurals of the nouns

Nouns That Change Vowels

Many English words become plural by changing their vowels, such as oo to ee or an to en.

Singular Plural (vowel change)

foot feet
tooth teeth
goose geese
man men
woman women

Irregular Nouns That Change Substantially

For a variety of historical reasons, some words change in spelling substantially when made plural

Singular Plural
mouse mice
die dice
ox oxen
child children
person people*
penny pence (in British usage)

Nouns Ending in –us

To make a word ending in -us plural, change -us to -i. Many plurals of words ending in -us have

anglicized versions, formed by simply adding -es.

Singular (-us) Plural (-i)

genius geniuses
radius radii (also radiuses) raze
fungus fungi - ciupearcă
nucleus nuclei
cactus flower cacti flowers
alumnus alumni* absolventi
octopus octopi (or octopuses) – caracatiță
hippopotamus hippopotami (or hippopotamuses)
Irregular Formation of Nouns Ending in –is

Nouns with an -is ending can be made plural by changing -is to -es. Some people have a hard

time remembering that the plural of crisis is crises and the plural of axis is axes,

but crisises and axises are incorrect.

Singular (-is) Plural (-es)

diagnosis diagnoses
analysis analyses
crisis crises
hypothesis hypotheses

Irregular Formation of Nouns Ending in –on.

These Greek words change their -on ending to -a.

Singular (-on) Plural (-a)

phenomenon phenomena
criterion criteria

Irregular Formation of Nouns Ending in -um

Words ending in -um shed their -um and replace it with -a to form a plural.

Singular (-um)Plural (-a)

datum data
memorandum memoranda
bacterium bacteria
stratum strata
curriculum curricula (also curriculums)

Irregular Formation of Nouns Ending in -ix

Singular (-ix) Plural (-ces, -xes)

index indices (or indexes)
appendix appendices (or appendixes, in a medical context)

II. Furniture vs Furnitures

Work vs Works
Scale vs Scales
 Hair vs Hairs
Custom vs Customs
III. Opposite gender:
Proprietor – proprietoress
Hero –
Wizard –
Headmaster –
Actor –
Wolf –
IV. Write the correct plural form of the following nouns

1. Focus –
2. Nucleus –
3. Appendix –
4. Parenthesis –
5. Stimulus -
6. Hypothesis -
7. Visa –
8. Formula -