Making nouns plural

-s or -es Add -s to form the plural of most nouns; add - es to singular nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch, and -x.

table, tables church, churches
paper, papers dish, dishes

Ordinarily add -s to nouns ending in -o when the -o is preceded by a vowel. Add -es when it is preceded by a consonant.

radio, radios hero, heroes
video, videos tomato, tomatoes

final -y When adding -s or -d to words ending in -y, ordinarily change -y to -ie when the -y is preceded by a consonant but not when it is preceded by a vowel.

comedy, comedies monkey, monkeys
dry, dried play, played

With proper names ending in -y, however, do not change the -y to -ie even if it is preceded by a consonant: the Doughertys.

other plurals To form the plural of a hyphenated compound word, add -s to the chief word even if it does not appear at the end.

mother-in-law, mothers-in-law

English words derived from other languages such as Latin, Greek, or French sometimes form the plural as they would in their original language.

medium, media criterion, criteria chateau, chateaux