There are so many spelling rules and it can be difficult to learn and remember them all when you are learning English. Usually when you are talking about more than one item or thing, you add the letter ‘s’ on the end, which makes it plural. However this isn’t always the case; if the word ends in the letter ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, or ‘x’ you add ‘es’.
When do you add ‘es’?
If you are writing an assignment about what you like to do, you could write ‘I like going to church’, if you enjoy going to more than one church, you could write ‘I like going to churches.’
Or maybe you enjoy walking, so you could write ‘I like walking down the River Thames path’ or if you enjoy walking far, you could write ‘I like walking down the River Thames paths’.
Both words (church and path) end in the letter ‘h’, so how come the first example adds the letters ‘es’ to make it plural, whilst the second example only adds the letter ‘s’ to make it plural?
The spelling rule
The spelling rule is: when the word ends in ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, or ‘x’ you add ‘es’. This rule was created centuries ago, as a means of stopping the plural ‘s’ clashing with these letters.
So, when the word has s, ss, z, ch, sh, or x at the end of a word, you add ‘es’:
Examples:
- Bus = Buses
- Miss = Misses
- Quiz = Quizzes
- Church = Churches
- Crash = Crashes
- Box = Boxes
Why not practice this for yourself or test your friends and family? Below are a list of 15 words that you need to decide whether they need ‘s’ or ‘es’ adding on the end to make them plural.
When making words plural, why do you add S to some words but ES to others? And when a word ends with Y, how do you know whether to change the Y to I before adding the plural suffix? And why on earth does the word knife become knives?
You can unravel these mysteries with six scoops of ice cream. Just click the play button below for a yummy treat, and then read on for free printable spelling rule posters and sample lessons!
Ready to Dig In?
Whether you prefer your ice cream in dishes or in cones or with one cherry or two cherries, these tasty guidelines will help you spell plurals correctly every time.
Tips and tricks like these are taught throughout the All About Spelling program. Want to see more? Download these free resources to see just how easy teaching spelling rules can be.
Download All About Spelling Level 1, Step 23.
This lesson from All About Spelling Level 1 shows how we teach kids to make words plural by adding either S or ES.
Download All About Spelling Level 5, Step 17.
In this lesson from All About Spelling Level 5, you can see how we teach kids to pluralize words that end in F and FE.
Download our free Spelling Rules Posters.
This handy resource will help make learning three important spelling rules fun and easy to remember for your children.
Do you think these guidelines for making words plural will improve your child’s spelling? Let me know in the comments below! And check out our other spelling rules, too!
boys, countries, businesses, heroes, videos, boxes, rulers, women, children, dogs, washes, memories, sheep
Do you know when we add -ies, -ves, -s and -es ?
We're going to look at these important spelling rules then there's a spelling test so read carefully.
1. Add -s to regular plurals. Adding an s is all you need to form a regular plural: file - files, centre - centres, girl - girls, book - books, computer - computers, ambition - ambitions...
2. Add es to words ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, -z:
wash - washes, box - boxes, match - matches, glass - glasses, bus - buses, business - businesses...
*There's one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a 'k' then add -s (stomach - stomachs)
Click here to find out why we add -es to these words, and watch the Adding -es video.
3. Change to ves or add s.
Some words ending in f or fe change to ves: knife - knives, life - lives, wife - wives, shelf - shelves
Exceptions: add s: roof - roofs, proof - proofs, chief - chiefs
Words ending in ff add s: cliffs, sniffs, scoffs, toffs stiffs, tiffs...
These words can be either ves or s: scarf - scarves or scarfs, dwarf - dwarves or dwarfs
Click here for more info on the -ves or -s rule and spelling test
4. Change y to ies or s
a. If the word ends in a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) + y then just add s:
boy - boys, journey - journeys, key - keys, tray - trays
b. If the word ends in a consonant + y change y to ies:
country - countries, baby - babies, body - bodies, memory - memories
Click here to go to the y to -ies or -s video and exercise
5. Adding s or es to words ending in O:
a. If a word ends in a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) + 'o' then we sometimes add s.
radio - radios, stereo - stereos, video - videos
b. If a words ends in a consonant + 'o', we sometimes add s, sometimes es. No rules for this - you just have to learn the common words, or use a dictionary.
kilo - kilos, zero - zeros, piano - pianos, photo - photos
but hero - heroes, potato - potatoes, volcano - volcanoes, tomato - tomatoes.
Click here to go to the Making Plurals with O Words video and exercise
6. Irregular plurals
woman - women, man - men, child - children, person - people, tooth - teeth, foot - feet, mouse - mice, penny - pence
7. No change between plural and singular.
There are some words that are the same in the plural as in the singular: sheep, series, fish*, cod, salmon, aircraft, cattle, scissors, deer, trousers
fish or fishes? The plural form fish is more common. Fishes is used when talking about different types of fish. (Oxford Dictionary)
Spelling test
Now write the plural versions of these words.
1. man
2. fox
3. family
4. mobile phone / cell phone
5. baby
6. person
7. radio
8. dictionary
9. teacher
10. watch
11. bus
12. fish
13. photo
14. tomato
15. woman
16. wife
17. body
18. fly
19. colour
20. mother-in-law
Check your answers below.
Thanks to Oxford Dictionaries online
Answers
1.men
2. foxes
3. families
4. mobile phones / cell phones
5. babies
6. people
7. radios
8. dictionaries
9. teachers
10. watches
11. buses
12. fish
13. photos
14. tomatoes
15. women
16. wives
17. bodies
18. flies
19. colours
20. mothers-in-law
Spelling Rules Workbook
a step-by-step guide to the rules of English spelling
(suitable for British and American users)
200 pages of spelling rules and exercises.
Learn all about rules such as drop the 'e', magic 'e' silent 'e', 1:1:1 doubling up rule, al, el, le rule, adding ly, y to i rules, ck, k, ke rules, silent letter rules, prefix rules and much much more.