Learn English Grammar

Kindly notice some sort of change in the second word of each pair :-

(1) Tree ---- Trees..... ....(3) Ox ---- Oxen
(2) Box ---- Boxes...... ....(4) Man ---- Men

Here the if you see you would find that , the first word of each pair denotes 'one' thing , where as second word denotes 'more than one' .

A Noun that denotes one person or thing is said to be in the Singular Number ; as ,
Boy , girl , cow , bird , tree , book , etc ......

A Noun that denotes more than one person or thing is said to be in the Plural Number ; as ,
Boys , girls , cows , birds , trees , books , etc ......

::::::::::::::::::::::::: How plurals are formed :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

(1) The plural of nouns are generally formed by adding -s to the singular as ; as ,
(1) Boy---boys ; (2) Girl---girl ; (3) Book---books ; ......etc...

(2) But nouns ending in -s , -sh , -ch (soft) , or -x form plural by adding -es to the singular ; as ,
(1) Class---- classes ; (2) Kiss ---- kisses ; (3) Dish ---- dishes ; (4) Brush ---- brushes ; ... etc

(3) Generally most of the nouns ending in -o also form plural by adding -es to the singular ; as ,
(1) Buffalo ---- buffaloes ; (2) mango ---- mangoes ; (3) hero ---- heroes ; (4) echo --- echoes ;

(4) A few nouns ending in -o , generally those which are in less common use , add -s ; as ,
(1) dynamo---- dynamoes ; (2) solo ---- solos ; (3) ratio --- ratios ; (4) canto --- cantoes ;

(5) Nouns ending in -y , preceded by a consonant , form their plural by changing -y into -i and adding -es ; as ,
(1) Lady --- ladies ; (2) army --- armies ; (3) story --- stories ; (4) baby --- babies ;

(6) Several nouns ending in -f or -fe form their plural by changing -f or -fe into v and adding -es ; as ,
(1) Theif --- theives ; (2) wife --- wives ; (3) wolf --- wolves ; (4) life --- lives ;

But generally , though above rules follows very well , but exceptions do come in it ......

Few nouns form their plural by changing the inside vowel of the singular ; as ,
Man --- men , woman --- women , foot --- feet ;

Some nouns have the singular and plural alike ;
as , Swine , sheep , deer , thousand , pair .....etc......

Some are used only as a plural ; as ,
Bellows , tongs , spectacles ;

Some nouns originally singular are now used as plural ; as ,
riches , eaves , alms ;

The following plural forms are commonly used in singular :-
Mathematics , physics , mechanics , politics , news ;

Certain Collective Nouns , though singular in the form are always used as plural ; as ,
Poultry , cattle , people , vermin ;

Letters and symbols are made plural by adding an apostrophe and s ; as ,
for example :- (1) Add two 5's and four 2's . ; (2) There are more e's than a's in this page .