1. What are singulars and plurals?

A singular is a word that tells us there is only one.
A plural is a word that tells us there are more than one.

For example:
star is singular (there is only one star)
stars is plural (there are more than one star)

2. Different types of plurals

Most plurals are made by adding ‘s’ to the singular.
However, not all plurals are like this.

‘s’ plurals

Singular	Plural
dog	dogs
house	houses
bottle	bottles
book	books
computer	computers

‘es’ plurals

Nouns ending in ‘o’, ‘s’, ‘ch’, ‘th’, ‘sh’ or ‘x’ usually use ‘es’ for plurals:

Singular	Plural
potato	potatoes
boss	bosses
watch	watches
brush	brushes
box	boxes

However, this is not always true (for example, 1 path and 2 paths).

‘ves’ plurals

Nouns that end in one ‘f’ (or have ‘f’ as the last sound) often change the ‘f’ to ‘v’, then add ‘es’:

Singular	Plural
wife	wives
wolf	wolves
half	halves
loaf	loaves
knife	knives

Again, this is not always true (for example: 1 reef, 2 reefs).

Unusual plurals

Some nouns in English have unusual plurals:

Singular	Plural
woman	women
person	people
ox	oxen
tooth	teeth
millennia	millennium

Unfortunately there is not an easy way to learn these; usually English speakers learn through experience.

No change plurals

There are some plurals (most often animals) that are the same as the singular:

Singular	Plural
fish	fish
sheep	sheep
shrimp	shrimp
species	species
aircraft	aircraft

3. Uncountable nouns are different

Singulars tell us there is one. Plurals tell us there are more than one.
But some nouns cannot be counted.
These uncountable nouns do not need plurals.

Uncountable noun	Don’t say	Do say
water	1 water 2 waters	some water
money	1 money 2 moneys	some money
air	1 air 2 airs	some air
meat	1 meat 2 meats	some meat
happiness	1 happiness 2 happiness	some happiness

Advanced note:
If talking about food, we usually don’t count it if it is generally on a plate, or generally served.
Example: I have some pizza (pizza is general, and uncountable)

However, we do count it (1, 2, 3 etc.) if the food makes different meals on different plates.
Example: We bought two pizzas. (the pizzas are clearly separate)

4. Test yourself

Click here to test your knowledge of this grammar point.