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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:, , Provided by the Academic Center for Excellence, , 1, , Spelling Noun Plurals, Revised Summer 2015

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•, •, •, , stereo -- stereos, studio -- studios, duo -- duos, , b. All musical terms ending in -o have plurals ending in just -s., •, •, •, , piano -- pianos, cello -- cellos, solo -- solos, , c. The following are examples of plural forms of words ending in -o:, -os, albinos, armadillos, autos, bravos, broncos, cantos, casinos, combos, gazebos, infernos, kimonos, logos, ponchos, sombreros, tacos, torsos, tobaccos, typos, , -oes, echoes, embargoes, heroes, potatoes, tomatoes, torpedoes, vetoes, , -os or -oes, avocados / oes, buffaloes / os, cargoes / os, desperadoes / os, dodoes / os, dominoes / os, ghettos / oes, hoboes / os, innuendoes / os, lassos / oes, mangoes / os, mosquitoes / os, mottoes / os, palmettos / oes, tornadoes / os, volcanoes / os, zeros / oes, , If you are unsure of how to make a noun plural, you can look up the singular, form of noun in a dictionary to get the plural form., , Provided by the Academic Center for Excellence, , 2, , Spelling Noun Plurals