Plurals
Add -s Chair = Chairs Book = Books
Add -es Added to words ending in –s, sh, ch, and x Dress = Dresses Birch = Birches Bush = Bushes Box = Boxes
Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant Change the y to i and add es Fly = flies Enemy = enemies Lady = ladies Salary = salaries
Nouns ending in y preceded by a vowel Add –s Monkey = Monkeys Donkey = Donkeys
Ending in f or fe Add –s –Roof = Roofs –Dwarf = Dwarfs –Chief = Chiefs Change f to v and add –s or –es –Knife = Knives –Loaf = Loaves –Leaf = Leaves
Ending in o Preceded by a vowel –Rodeo = Rodeos –Radio = Radios Following a consonant –Hero = Heroes –Potato = potatoes –Mosquito = Mosquitoes Italian words referring to music = s
Irregular Child = Children Woman = Women Mouse = Mice Tooth = Teeth Ox = Oxen Goose = Geese
Nouns + Modifier Make noun plural –Mother-in-law = mothers-in-law –Man-of-war = men-of-war –Secretary-general = Secretaries-general
Same in singular and plural Sheep Deer Trout Species Chinese
Foreign words Same as in original language –Alumnus = alumni –Datum = data –Crisis = crises -s or –es –Index = indices or indexes –Appendix = appendices or appendixes
Possessives Not ending ending in sin s ’s ’ ’s ’ singular plural
A singular noun ending in an s or z Add the apostrophe only if… –The noun has more than one syllable –The addition of the s would make it awkward Examples: –The species' characteristics –Odysseus’ adventures
If one syllable and ends in s… Bus’s Boss’s
Irregular Geese’s migration Women’s shoes Children’s stories
Personal Pronouns Do not use apostophe His Hers Its Ours Yours Theirs
Indefinite Pronouns Use apostrophe One’s Everyone’s Everybody’s Everyone else’s Etc…
Hyphenated Words Father-in-law’s Commander-in-chief’s
Two people own something individually Tom’s and Bill’s jackets Mike’s and Steve’s wallets
Compound Nouns Showing joint possession Jolie and Pitt’s children My aunt and uncle’s computer