Page 68 - Improve_Your_Written_English [Marion_Field]
P. 68
54 / P ART ONE: THE B AS ICS
Changing ‘y’ to ‘i’
If a noun ends in ‘y’, and there is a consonant before it, a
plural is formed by changing the ‘y’ into an ‘i’ and adding
‘-es’:
berry – berries
company – companies
lady – ladies
nappy – nappies
If the ‘y’ is preceded by another vowel, an ‘s’ only is added:
covey – coveys
monkey – monkeys
donkey – donkeys
Adding ‘es’ or ‘s’
If a noun ends in ‘o’ and a consonant precedes the ‘o’, ‘-es’ is
added to form a plural:
hero – heroes
potato – potatoes
tomato – tomatoes
If there is a vowel before the ‘o’, an ‘s’ only is added:
patio – patios
studio – studios
zoo – zoos
It would be difficult to add an ‘s’ only to some words because
it would be impossible to pronounce them. These are words
that end in ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘s’, ‘x’ and ‘z’. In this case an ‘e’ has to
be added before the ‘s’: