Plural And Possessive Forms Part 2.
Nouns ending in “y”
To form the plural of nouns ending in “y”, drop the “y” and add “ies.”
Family becomes families.
Story becomes stories.
Baby becomes babies.
Irregular plural forms
There are several other irregularities in the plural forms of English nouns. Here are examples:
Man becomes men.
Woman becomes women.
Fungus becomes fungi.
Thief becomes thieves (note that not all words ending in “f” follow this pattern: roof/roofs).
Species remains species.
Medium becomes media.
Person becomes people.
Plural forms and the apostrophe.
A common error is to form the plural of a noun by adding “s” to the singular form. Try to get out the habit of doing this. A trick for remembering that the apostrophe signifies the plural is that possessive means “having” and so the possessive form of the word “has” an apostrophe. How do you tell the difference in between plural and possessive? Check the meaning of the sentence. Does the noun simply refer to more than one thing? Or does the sentence mention something that belongs to the noun?
Although usage has changed in recent years, some handbooks call for an apostrophe in the plural forms of numbers, letters, and words used as words:
How many 1′s do we have in the line?
We put x’s on the incorrect answers.
The no’s resounded loudly throughout the chamber.
