How Do You Say Babies but Not the Plural Version

Irregular plural nouns are nouns that do not become plural past adding -s or -es, equally most nouns in the English do. You lot're probably familiar with many of these already. For instance, the plural course of man is men, non mans. The plural form of woman is women, non womans. In that location are hundreds of irregular plural nouns, and in truth, y'all must memorize them through reading and speaking. There are, however, some common patterns to wait out for.

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The About Mutual Irregular Plurals

Nouns ending in -f and -fe

To brand a plural of a word catastrophe in -f, change the f to a 5 and add together es. Similarly, if a word ends in -fe, modify the f to a v and add an southward. The event for both types is a plural that ends in -ves. This spelling arose considering of the difficulty of pronouncing f and southward together in English (an attempt to practise this will produce a 5 sound).

Singular (-f, -fe)	Plural (-ves)
pocketknife	knives
life	lives
wife	wives
calf	calves
leaf	leaves

Exceptions: roofs and proofs (among others).

Nouns Catastrophe in -o

Plurals of words ending in -o are ordinarily made past adding -es.

Singular (-o)	Plural (-oes)
potato	potatoes
tomato plant	tomatoes
hero	heroes
torpedo	torpedoes
veto	vetoes

But of course, in that location are exceptions. (Aren't there always?) Some words catastrophe in -o that are borrowed from other languages take only an south to make a plural, such every bit pianos, cantos, photos, and zeros. Cello, which is an abbreviation of the Italian word violoncello, can be written the traditional style, celli, or the normally accepted anglicized style, cellos.

Nouns That Change Vowels

Many English words go plural by irresolute their vowels, such as oo to ee or an to en.

Singular	Plural (vowel change)
foot	feet
tooth	teeth
goose	geese
man	men
woman	women

Fun fact: The eighteenth-century American dictionary reformer Noah Webster preferred spellings that were closer to their most common pronunciations. Thus, he advocated for the render of the Old English language plural wimmen. Wouldn't that take been convenient?

Irregular Nouns That Alter Essentially

For a variety of historical reasons, some words change in spelling essentially when made plural.

louselice

Singular	Plural
mouse	mice
die	dice
ox	oxen
child	children
person	people*
penny	pence (in British usage)

Irregular Nouns That Exercise Not Change at All When Made Plural

Some English nouns are identical in both the singular and the plural forms. Many of these are names for animals.

Singular/ Plural (no change)

sheep

fish

moose

swine

buffalo

shrimp

trout

Aircraft, watercraft, hovercraft, and spacecraft are all the aforementioned whether atypical or plural.

Plurals of Latin and Greek Words

There are certain words we employ on a regular basis, particularly in mathematical and scientific contexts, that are borrowed from Latin or Greek. Many of these words retain their Latin or Greek plurals in math and scientific discipline settings. Some of them as well have anglicized plural forms that accept come into common use.

Nouns Ending in -us

To brand a give-and-take ending in -us plural, change -usa to -i. Many plurals of words catastrophe in -u.s.a. have anglicized versions, formed by simply adding -es. The latter method sounds more natural in informal settings. If at that place is an anglicized version that is well accepted, this will be noted in the dictionary entry for the word you are using.

Singular (-us)	Plural (-i)
focus	foci (besides focuses)
radius	radii (also radiuses)
fungus	fungi
nucleus	nuclei
cactus	cacti
alumnus	alumni*
octopus	octopuses (or octopi)
hippopotamus	hippopotami (or hippopotamuses)

With the double i, radii (pronounced RAY-dee-i) sounds unwieldy, only if yous are a mathematician, you probably use information technology every twenty-four hour period. If you are a zoologist, y'all might say, "Hey, did you see those hippopotami?" but it would sound silly on a casual visit to the zoo. Many people resist the spelling octopuses, but information technology is perfectly adequate. In fact, if you put a fine point on information technology, since octopus is of Greek origin rather than from Latin, theoretically the spelling should be octopodes, not octopi.

Irregular Germination of Nouns Ending in -is

Nouns with an -is ending can be made plural by changing -is to -es. Some people have a hard time remembering that the plural of crunch is crises and the plural of centrality is axes, but crisises and axises are incorrect.

Singular (-is)	Plural (-es)
axis	axes (this is also the plural of ax and axe)
analysis	analyses
crisis	crises
thesis	theses

Irregular Formation of Nouns Ending in -on

These Greek words change their -on ending to -a.

Singular (-on)	Plural (-a)
phenomenon	phenomena
criterion	criteria

Irregular Formation of Nouns Catastrophe in -um

Words ending in -um shed their -um and replace information technology with -a to form a plural. The plurals of some of these words are far better known than their singular counterparts.

Singular (-um) Plural (-a)

datum	data
memorandum	memoranda
bacterium	leaner
stratum	strata
curriculum	curricula (besides curriculums)

Irregular Formation of Nouns Catastrophe in -9

Nouns catastrophe in -ix are changed to -ices in formal settings, but sometimes -xes is perfectly acceptable.

Singular (-ix)	Plural (-ces, -xes)
alphabetize	indices (or indexes)
appendix	appendices (or appendixes, in a medical context)
vortex	vortices (or vortexes)

These rules for irregular plural nouns must simply be memorized, although it is helpful to understand the patterns get-go in order to master them. Nosotros besides have information on the Grammarly web log about patterns for regular nouns.

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Source: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/irregular-plural-nouns/

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