Irregular Plurals in English

Irregular Plurals in EnglishAn English teacher shows how some popular irregular nouns change in the plural form. These nouns don’t add the “s” at the end of the word.

Irregular Nouns

Some nouns don’t use –s in the plural number. Historically they have special plurals always to be minded. Some change inner vowels, others have strange endings.

Irregular Nouns

singular

plural

man [mæn] men [men]
woman [‘wumәn] women [‘wi:min]
child [t∫aild] children [‘t∫ildrәn]
person [‘pe:s(ә)n] people [‘pi:pl]
foot [fut] feet [fi:t]
tooth [tu:θ] teeth [ti:θ]
datum [‘deit(ә)m] data [‘deitә]

one child – two children

one foot – two feet

These are my teeth.

People has no singular number whose equivalent may be the regular noun person.

Possessive Plurals

So don’t put –s to irregular plurals unless they’re possessive:

men’s

women’s

children’s

Animal Plurals

Many animal plurals are irregular. There’re many animal nouns that don’t change in the plural number.

Irregular Animals

singular

plural

mouse [maus] mice [mais]
louse [laus] lice [lais]
goose [gu:s] geese [gi:s]
ox [oks] oxen [‘oksen]
fish [fi∫] fish
deer [diә] deer
sheep [∫i:p] sheep
swine [swain] swine

one mouse – two mice

one fish – many fish

one deer – two deer