Regular plurals

The plural morpheme in English is suffixed to the end of most nouns. Regular English plurals fall into three classes, depending upon the sound that ends the singular form:

Where a singular noun ends in a sibilant sound —/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/— the plural is formed by adding /ɨz/. The spelling adds -s, or -es if the singular already ends in -s:

When the singular form ends in a voiceless consonant (other than a sibilant) —/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ or /θ/— the plural is formed by adding /s/. The spelling adds -s:

For all other words (i.e. words ending in vowels or voiced non-sibilants) the regular plural adds /z/, represented orthographically by -s:

Morphophonetically, these rules are sufficient to describe most English plurals. However, there are several complications introduced in spelling.

The -oes rule: most nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant also form their plurals by adding -es (pronounced /z/):

The -ies rule: nouns ending in a y preceded by a consonant usually drop the y and add -ies (pronounced /iz/). This is taught to many North American and British students with the mnemonic: "Change the y to i and add es":

However, proper nouns (particularly those for people or places) ending in a y preceded by a consonant form their plurals regularly:

The rule does not apply to words that are merely capitalized common nouns:

Other exceptions include lay-bys and stand-bys.

Words ending in a y preceded by a vowel form their plurals regularly:

(Money/Monies is an exception, but money can also form its plural regularly.

Almost-regular plurals

Many nouns of foreign origin, including almost all Italian loanwords, are exceptions to the -oes rule:

In Old and Middle English voiceless fricatives /f/, /θ/ mutated to voiced fricatives before a voiced ending. In some words this voicing survives in the modern English plural. In the case of /f/ changing to /v/, the mutation is indicated in the orthography as well; also, a silent e is added in this case if the singular does not already end with -e:

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