CARROTTA
carrotta.net
🔀 Compendium
Grammar
EN
English — Irregular plurals
Most English nouns form the plural by adding -s or -es, but a small group of common words changes in an unpredictable way, for example man → men and child → children. These irregular plurals must be memorized individually.
1
How it works
✓ Rule
Some plurals change the vowel inside the word (man → men, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, mouse → mice), some use a special ending (child → children), some replace the whole word (person → people), and some do not change at all (fish → fish, sheep → sheep).
2
Examples
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| man | men |
| woman | women |
| child | children |
| foot | feet |
| tooth | teeth |
| mouse | mice |
| person | people |
| fish, sheep | fish, sheep |
3
Good to know
⚠ Note
Do not add -s to these forms: write two children, not two childs, and three feet, not three foots. Note also that woman → women changes only in pronunciation of the first vowel, and that people is the normal plural of person (persons exists but is formal or legal).