Grammar for Everyone - Barbara Dykes 2007
Number
Introduction
Part II The parts of speech
Number tells us whether there is just one thing or more than one. In English the formation of plurals is simpler than in many other languages.
It is a good idea, especially for younger and ESL students, to explain the various ways in which we make plurals, as they can cause some confusion.
1. For most nouns, we just add ’s’ to form the plural.
For example:
one hat
two hats
one fire
five fires
2. For some words it is difficult to add ’s’ alone - try saying box with just ’s’ on the end. For such words, we insert the vowel sound ’e’ for ease of pronunciation.
For example:
one box
two boxes
one lunch
two lunches
3. Although our language has been simplified in many ways over time, some old forms have stayed, largely due to earlier pronunciation. Among these are a number of words in which the inside vowel changes between singular and plural. These just have to be learnt.
For example:
one man
two men
one mouse
three mice
4. We also have plurals made by adding ’en’.
For example:
one chick
ten chickens
one ox
a team of oxen
Other examples of irregular plurals include:
child children
die dice
leaf leaves
sheep sheep
woman women
foot feet
goose geese
ESL students need to learn these especially, as they may not be familiar with hearing them spoken.