English · A1 · grammar · 4 minutes
Regular and irregular plurals
Form common plurals and keep determiners and verbs consistent.
Understand the choice
Plural grammar is a sweep across the noun phrase and clause. Noun, demonstrative, and present verb must all reflect one versus many.
Core rule: Most nouns add -s; add -es after s, sh, ch, x, or z; consonant+y often becomes -ies; common irregulars include child→children and person→people.
Notice it in context
One child has two books, and three children have pens.
Un niño tiene dos libros y tres niños tienen bolígrafos.
Books/pens add -s; children is irregular; plural children take have, not has.
This box is small, but those boxes are large.
One nearby box is small; several other boxes are large.
Box adds -es; this/is change to those/are.
The city has a bus; the cities have buses.
One city owns one bus; several cities own buses.
City→cities and bus→buses show two spelling rules.
What to remember
- Some nouns are unchanged: one sheep, two sheep.
- Man→men, woman→women, foot→feet, tooth→teeth are high-frequency irregulars.
Common trap: Do not pluralize only the noun while leaving this/is/has singular.