Page 108 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ cat cats movie movies rake rakes taxi taxis tunnel tunnels
However, for words that end in sounds formed by endings such as -ch, -s, -

sh, and -x, add -es.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ pitch pitches Jones Joneses mess messes wish wishes box

■ boxes tax taxes For most words that end in -y, use -ies.

■ ■ ■ ■ body bodies brewery breweries copy copies periphery

■ peripheries query queries Another place where the old forms of English
have stayed on even in our modern language is in the form of irregular

plurals.
Probably the best-known example is a plural in which the vowel changes,

and sometimes an adjoining consonant, but no new suffix is added. These are

known as mutated plurals, a form of changed English inherited from its
Germanic roots.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ foot feet goose geese louse lice man men mouse mice

■ tooth teeth woman women Frequently, nouns ending with -f (or the -f

sound) are pluralized by changing the -f to -ves.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ calf calves elf elves half halves hoof hoofs, hooves knife
■ knives leaf leaves (exception: Toronto Maple Leafs, a hockey team)

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ life lives loaf loaves self selves shelf shelves thief thieves

■ wife wives wolf wolves Note that roof is not one of these words: its
plural is roofs.

Many words borrowed from Latin, especially scientific ones, take a Latin

■■■■plural: addendum addenda alga algae alumnus alumni
■■■amoeba amoebae antenna antennae bacterium bacteria

■■■cactus cacti criterion criteria curriculum curricula datum data
■■■(see section 8.6.8, Plural of Data) fungus fungi genus genera

■■■larva larvae memorandum memoranda stimulus stimuli

■syllabus syllabi vertebra vertebrae