Singular and plural nouns

What you'll learn

A singular noun means one person or thing.

• one book
• one child
• one box

A plural noun means two or more people or things.

• two books
• two children
• two boxes

Start with these examples

• I have one cat.
• She has two cats.
• There is a bus.
• There are three buses.

Most plurals: add -s

book → books
car → cars
phone → phones

Add -es

Add -es after many nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -x or -o.

• bus → buses
• watch → watches
• box → boxes
• tomato → tomatoes

Nouns ending in consonant + y

Change y to -ies.

• baby → babies
• city → cities
• party → parties

But keep y after a vowel.

• boy → boys
• key → keys

Important irregular plurals

Some common nouns change completely.

• child → children
• man → men
• woman → women
• person → people
• foot → feet

Learn these as complete new words.

Common mistakes

• two childs → two children
• three boxs → three boxes
• one books → one book
• two womans → two women

Quick check

• book → books
• watch → watches
• city → cities
• child → children

Next step

Use possessive words such as my, your and their before a noun.