Many common nouns can be singular or plural. Singular means one. Plural means more than one.

We make many nouns plural by adding ‘-s'.

Singular	Plural
book	books
dog	dogs
table	tables
pillow	pillows
apple	apples

Here are some example sentences.

• I have one brother and 3 sisters.
• She has a dog and two cats.
• There are many houses in the neighborhood.
• How many pillows do you have?
• Can I have one cookie?

Some nouns change in a little different way. Here are 3 rules that you need to remember.

1. If a singular noun ends in "-s, -x, -z, -ch, -sh" then we make the plural form by add ‘-es'.

Singular	Plural
bus	buses
box	boxes
wish	wishes
bench	benches
dish	dishes
church	churches
brush	brushes

• You can take many different buses into the city.
• I saw 3 foxes in the forest.
• The genie will grant you three wishes.

2. If a singular noun ends in "consonant+ y" then we make the plural dropping the ‘y' and adding ‘-ies'.

Singular	Plural
strawberry	strawberries
library	libraries
spy	spies
city	cities
baby	babies

But if the word ends in "vowel + y", then we just add an ‘-s'.

Singular	Plural
toy	toys
kidney	kidneys
monkey	monkeys

I know that this annoying. But it should not be too hard because there are not many nouns that end in "-y".

• There are many cities that I want to visit.
• When I visit my family, there are many babies. I am not sure if I want to have a baby.
• Our city only has one library, but many people think we should build more libraries.
• The child has many toys in his room.

3. If a singular noun ends in "-f" or "-fe" then we make the plural form by changing the "f" to "v" and adding ‘-es'. The easiest way to understand is to see examples.

Singular	Plural
wolf	wolves
knife	knives
leaf	leaves

Luckily, there are not many nouns like this. Here are a few example sentences.

• I saw one wolf, but my brother says he saw 3 wolves.
• She loves to cook, so she has many knives in her kitchen.
• There are many leaves on the ground.

4. If a word ends in "-o" there are no definite rules. Sometimes we add ‘-s' and sometimes we add ‘-es'. We just need to memorize these words. Here is a list of ones that you need to know.

Singular	Plural
hero	heroes
avocado	avocados
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
torpedo	torpedoes
zoo	zoos
studio	studios

• When he first started his business, he owned one studio, but now he owns over 10 studios in 5 different cities.
• I don't know any city that has multiple zoos.
• The X-Men series follows a group of heroes as they fight bad guys.
• We have many tomatoes. Please take some.

When you are learning English, all these grammar rules can be annoying, but you will learn a lot of these naturally as you continue to study English and it will be easier than you think.

Make sure that you understand this basic English grammar well. It is important to know if you want to speak English well.