It may sound basic, but many people struggle with irregular plural forms in English even when they have reached a high level of fluency. After all, you normally add an “s” at the end of a word and, magically, you have a plural form. That’s true with most words, but not all.
So, let’s review some of these confusing plural forms.
SINGULAR Pronunciation of the vowel PLURAL Pronunciation of the vowel
Man Same vowel as “bad” Men Same vowel as “bed”
Woman Wo -man Women Wi-men
Child Same vowel as “I” Children Same vowel as “kitten”
Foot Short vowel as in “book” or “look” Feet Long vowel as in “meet”
Person One person People Two people
Tooth Long vowel as in “boot” Teeth Long vowel as in “meet”
Sheep Long vowel as in “meet” Sheep Same as the singular form
Fish Short vowel as in “hit” Fish Normally the same as the
singular form. “Fishes”
only used very rarely.
Salmon Don’t pronounce the “l” Salmon Normally the same as the
singular form. “Salmons”
only used rarely.
Deer Same pronunciation as “dear” Deer Normally the sae as the
singular form. “Deers”
only used very rarely.
Mouse Same vowel as in “house” Mice As in "nice"(the animal,
not the computer gadget)
Let’s look at some examples when the “s” expresses a possessive, not a plural form. In these cases, you might hear an “s” and think it’s a plural when it isn’t.
1. A man’s home is his castle.
2. Men’s clothes are on the first floor.
3. A woman’s future is bright.
4. Women’s future is bright.
5. A child’s book is colourful.
6. Children’s books are colourful.
7. There were a lot of sheep and cows on the field. (notice that sheep is a plural)
8. There are plenty of fish in the sea
9. I don’t like to see mice in the underground
There are not many exceptions to the normal rule of adding an “s” to form a plural, but most of the exceptions are words used daily, so it’s important to focus on them because you use them very often. And you don’t want other people to think that you don’t know the basics, do you? Of course not! Your English is great. 😊
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