Regular and Irregular Nouns and Their Plurals - English Grammar

What are Nouns?

Nouns are naming words.
Nouns tell us the names of things, people, places, titles, countries among others.
Nouns are divide into two groups:

1. Regular nouns
2. Irregular nouns

1. Regular Nouns

These are nouns which we add only letter /'s'/ to the singular form to make it plural.

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Boy	Boys
Girl	Girls
House	Houses
Car	Cars
Table	Tables
Cow	Cows

2. Irregular Nouns

These are nouns which follow different rules when writing them in plural.

1. Add /es/

- If the nouns end in /-s/, /-x/, /ch/ or /sh/, we add /'es'/ to make them plural.

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Box	Boxes
Torch	Torches
Bus	Buses
Class	Classes

2. Change /y/ to /i/ and add /es/

- If the noun ends with /'y'/ change the /'y'/ to /'i'/ and add /'-es'/

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Family	Families
Story	Stories
Body	Bodies
Lorry	Lorries

3. Word Remains Unchanged in Singular and Plural Form

- Not all nouns end with /'s'/ or /'es'/, some plural nouns remain unchanged.

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Maize	Maize
Sheep	Sheep
Fish	Fish

4. Word Changes Spelling

- Not all nouns end with /'s'/ or /'es'/, some plural nouns change their spelling

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Tooth	Teeth
Foot	Feet
Man	Men
Woman	Women

5. Word Ending with /f/ - Replace /f/ with /v/ and add /es/

- Nouns ending with /'f'/ in singular drop /'f'/ and take /'v'/ before we add /'es'/ in plural.

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Calf	Calves
Life	Lives
Thief	Thieves
Loaf	Loaves
Wife	Wives
Knife	Knives
Half	Halves

Practice Exercise of Regular and Irregular Nouns

Change the following sentence into their plural form.
1. The girl was punished.
2. The lorry carried a heavy load.
3. My brother bought a knife.
4. My father is a hero.
5. Modern bus has been made.