Spelling Noun Plurals
Provided by the Academic Center for Excellence 1 Revised Summer 2015
Spelling Noun Plurals
Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/index.php.
Plurals of nouns can be created in the following ways:
1. Add an -s to form the plural of most words.
• elephant -- elephants
• stereo -- stereos
2. For words that end in a “hissing” sound (-s, -z, -x, -ch, -sh), add an -es to form the
plural.
• box -- boxes
• church -- churches
3. If the word ends in a vowel plus -y (-ay, -ey, - iy, -oy, -uy), add an -s to form the
word.
• tray -- trays
• key -- keys
4. If the word ends in a consonant plus -y, change the -y into -ie and add an -s to form
the plural.
• enemy -- enemies
• baby -- babies
5. For words that end in -is, change the -is to -es to make the plural form.
• synopsis -- synopses
• thesis -- theses
6. Some words that end in -f or -fe have plurals that end in -ves.
• knife -- knives
• self -- selves
7. The plurals of words ending in -o are formed by either adding -s or by adding -es.
The plurals of many words can be formed either way. To determine whether a
particular word ends in -s or -es (or if the word can be spelled either way), check
your dictionary or the list below. There are two helpful rules:
a. All words that end in a vowel plus -o (-ao, -eo, -io, -oo, -uo) have plurals that
end in just -s:
