The plural of nouns in English: rules and exceptions

Nouns of English can changeits grammatical number, that is, to be unique or plural form. This article discusses different ways of forming plural nouns in English.

Plural of nouns

Nouns, called calculuses - These are parts of speech that can becounted. The end of the plural of English is usually spelling, adding the -s to the singular word. The phonetic form of the multiple morpheme is [z]. When the previous sound is a silent consonant, it is pronounced [s].

The plural of nouns inEnglish can be represented in different ways. When the noun ends with a hissing sound [s], [ʃ], [ʧ], [z], [ʒ] or [ʤ], the plural is formed by adding [ɪz]. Morphologically, this postulate is sufficient to describe the plural rules in the English language. However, there are several complications in spelling.

• Rule -oes: most nouns ending in o, preceded by a consonant, also form their plural, adding -es, pronounced [z]: potato - potatoes.
• The -s rule: nouns ending in y, preceded by a consonant, replace y and add -ies (pronounced [iz]): story - stories.

Note that the countablenouns (especially for people or places) ending in y, preceded by a consonant, form their plural by adding - ies: spy - spies.
Words ending in y preceded by a vowel form their plural numbers by adding -s: toy-toys.

But nevertheless, in English the most partnouns form a plural form by adding the ending s / es. These plural endings in a foreign language are the most popular. For example: ball - balls, train - trains.

Plural of uncountable nouns

In addition to the traditional education of multipleforms have other plural rules in English. There are many other less useful ways of forming. The plural of nouns in English is usually associated with older forms of language or with external borrowings.

Some nouns look the same both in the singular and in the plural. Some of them are animal names:

Deer - deer, fish - fish (and many individual fish names: cod, mackerel, trout, etc.), moose - elk, sheep - sheep.

Other nouns with equal endings of single and multiple forms include: aircraft - aircraft, blues - blues, cannon (sometimes cannons) - gun, head - head.

Below is the formation of plural numbers in English, in the table.

Nouns ending in -y		Nouns ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, -z		Nouns with -f, -fe at the end		Nouns ending in -o
baby - baby, baby	babies - kids, kids	bench bench	benches - benches	leaf - sheet	leaves - leaves	studio - studio zoo - the zoo		studios - studios zoo - zoos
butterfly - butterfly	butterflies - butterflies	box - box	boxes - boxes	wife - spouse	wifes - spouses
daisy - chamomile	daisies - chamomile	bush - shrub	bushes - bushes	wolf - wolf	wolves - wolves
		brush - brush	brushes - Brushes	chief - chief	chiefs - chiefs

The plural table in the English language reflects the features of changing the ending of nouns in different cases.

German nouns in the plural

Some English words came to us from otherlanguages ​​and form their multiple forms according to the rules of the language from which they came. Most German nouns used in English can be formed from a single number by adding -n or -en, resulting from an out-of-date weak declension. For example: vax - vaxen, unix - unices.

Sometimes the transformation happens by a simplechanging the vowel in a word called the umlaut (sometimes called a mutated plural): mouse - mice. If the words are borrowed from German, then in English the plural of nouns will be formed according to German rules.

Nouns from Greek and Latin

Since English includes wordsfrom many ancestral languages, many borrowings came from Latin and classical Greek. Such nouns (especially Latin) often retain their original plural numbers, at least a little after their introduction. In some cases, both forms still struggle for attention: for example, for appendix librarians - appendices, and for medics appendix is ​​appendixes.

Correctly formed Latin multiplenumbers are the most acceptable and, as a rule, required in academic and scientific contexts. In the general case, plural numbers with the ending -s are preferred.

The ending a becomes -ae (also -æ) or simply adds -s.

The end of ex or ix becomes -ices, or simply adds -es.

The plural of nouns in English that come from other languages

Some nouns of French origin add -x.

Nouns of Slavic origin add -a or -i according to their own rules or just -s.

Nouns get -im or -ot according to their own rules or just -s. Note that ot is pronounced as os in the Ashkenazi dialect.

Many nouns of Japanese origin are nothave multiple forms and do not change. However, other nouns, such as kimonos, futons, and tsunamis, are more common with the English ending of the plural form.

Plural and exception words in English

In addition to all the above features of the formation of multiple forms in the language there are additional exceptions.

A number of nouns associated with the replacement of a vowel in the root of a word when forming a plural should simply remember: foot - feet - legs, tooth - teeth - teeth, man - men - men, woman - women - women, child - children - children, ox - oxen - bulls.