--- title: Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Most nouns just add -s: cat, cats. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves… # Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones Lesson 6 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 26 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/6-spelling-plurals/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/1/) — Most nouns just add -s: cat, cats. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/4/) — Words ending in y look at the letter before it. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/5/) — A consonant before the y: change y to i and add -es (baby, babies; party, parties). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/6/) — A vowel before the y: just add -s (day, days; toy, toys). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/7/) — Changing every y would give monsters like «dayies». - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/8/) — Many words ending in -f or -fe turn into -ves: leaf, leaves; loaf, loaves; knife, knives; wolf, wolves; half, halves. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/9/) — Not all do: roof, roofs; chef, chefs. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/10/) — Some words ending in o add -es (potatoes, tomatoes, heroes, echoes), others just -s (pianos, photos, zoos); a silly sentence helps: «The heroes ate potatoes and tomatoes in the echo.» - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/11/) — Some of the oldest, commonest words change inside instead of adding s: mouse, mice; man, men; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; child, children. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/12/) — Some do not change at all: one sheep, ten sheep; one deer, two deer. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/13/) — Words borrowed from Latin may keep an old plural (cactus, cacti; fungus, fungi), and often the English one is fine too (cactuses). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/14/) — An apostrophe never makes a plural. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/15/) — «The teachers were happy» needs no apostrophe; «the teacher's desk» means the desk of one teacher. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/16/) — A wrong apostrophe in a plural is so common on shop signs («apple's 50p») that it has a nickname, the greengrocer's apostrophe. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/17/) — Singular means one; plural means more than one. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/18/) — Most nouns add -s for the plural: cat, cats. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/19/) — Nouns ending in s, x, z, ch or sh add -es, which adds an extra beat: foxes, boxes, churches, wishes. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/20/) — Consonant + y changes to -ies (baby, babies); vowel + y just adds -s (day, days). - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/21/) — Many -f and -fe words change to -ves (leaf, leaves; knife, knives; loaf, loaves), but some just add -s (roofs, chefs). - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/22/) — Some -o words add -es (potatoes, tomatoes, heroes, echoes) and others add -s (pianos, photos, zoos). - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/23/) — Some old common words change their vowel or ending: mouse/mice, man/men, foot/feet, tooth/teeth, goose/geese, child/children. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/24/) — Some nouns are the same in the plural: sheep, deer, moose, aircraft, and usually fish. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/25/) — Some words from Latin have old plurals (cactus/cacti, fungus/fungi); the English plural is often accepted too. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/26/) — An apostrophe is never used to make a plural; «teacher's» means belonging to one teacher. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/27/) — Slang words follow the ordinary plural rules (arvo, arvos), but school writing uses the standard word (afternoons). - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/6-spelling-plurals/28/) — Slang in this lesson: «arvo» is Australian for afternoon; «no cap» means «no lie, for real»; «wee» is Scottish for small; «mate» means friend. - ← previous: [Handwriting: holding the pencil and joining up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/5-handwriting-holding-the-pencil-and-joining-up/) - next →: [Adding -ed and -ing: doubling and dropping e](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/7-adding-ed-and-ing-doubling-and-dropping-e/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)