CHANGE MIDDLE VOWELS: In a few words, the mid-word vowels are changed to form the plural.

SINGULAR

PLURAL

mouse

mice /mas/

foot

feet /fit/

tooth

teeth /ti/

goose

geese /gis/

louse

lice /las/

SINGULAR FORM (NO CHANGE): In a few words, the singular form is used for both singular and plural.
SINGULAR

PLURAL

fish

fish

deer

deer

sheep

sheep

shrimp

shrimp

series

series

species

species

means

means

/rmp/

/sr-iz/
/spi-iz, -siz/

Irregular Plural Nouns (less common plural markers) Borrowed words -i, -en, -a, -es, -ae
LATIN WORDS: In words borrowed from Latin, the Latin plural forms are used.
SINGULARUS

PLURAL i

cactus

cacti cactuses

focus /foks/

foci /fosa, -ka/ (focuses)

fungus /f-gs/

fungi /fn-da,f-ga/

nucleus /nu-kli-s/

nuclei /nu-kli-a/

stimulus

stimuli

syllabus /sl--bs/

syllabi /sl--ba/

SINGULARON, UM

phenomenon
criterion
bacterium

Greek / Latin

Greek / Latin

PLURAL A

phenomena
criteria

Latin

bacteria

curriculum Latin

curricula

/f-n-m-n/

datum

data /de-t, d-t, d-t/

Latin

medium Latin

media

memorandum Latin

memoranda

SINGULARA

Plural AE

formula /frmyl/
vertebra

formulas / formulae /frm-y-li/

Latin

vertebrae

Latin

SINGULARIX, EX

Plural ICES, ES,

appendix /pn-dks/ Latin

appendices / ixes /pn-d-siz/

index Latin

indices / indexes

OLD ENGLISH WORDS OR GREEK WORDS: In some words, the plurals are derived (come) from older
language forms.
SINGULAR

PLURAL EN

man /mn/ from Middle English

men /mn/

woman /wmn/

women /wmn/

child /tald/

children /tl-drn/

ox

oxen /ksn/

SINGULAR IS

analysis

from Greek

PLURAL ES

analyses

Greek

basis

Greek

bases

crisis

Greek

crises

emphasis
hypothesis

emphases

Greek

hypotheses

Greek

oasis /oess/ Greek Egyptian

oases /oesiz/

parenthesis /prn--ss/

parentheses /prn---siz/

thesis /i-ss/

Greek

PLURAL ONE KIND

We bought fish.

Greek

theses /i-siz/

We have fruit.
The market sells shrimp.
We tasted cheese.

PLURAL VARIETIES

We bought several kinds of fish at the market.

We bought different kinds of fish at the market.
We bought a variety of fish at the market.
*We bought fishes at the market. (error)
Scientific context: Coral reef fishes, catalog of fishes, "all the fishes of the sea"

We have different kinds of fruit.

We have several kinds of fruit.
We have a variety of fruit.
*We have fruits. (dialectal variation)
Scientific context: Fruits of South America, fruits that are rich in anti-oxidants, "the fruits of our labor"; we bought fruits and vegetables(parallel plurals)

The market sells different kinds of shrimp.

The market sells several kinds of shrimp.
The market sells a variety of shrimp.
*The market sells shrimps. (uncommon usage in Amer. Eng.; dialectal variation exists)
Scientific context: "The Secret World of Shrimps", Freshwater Shrimps, "shrimps and prawns" (parallel plurals)

We tasted several kinds of cheese.

We tasted different kinds of cheese.
We tasted a variety of cheese.
We tasted several cheeses. (ok - noncount noun)
Scientific context or topics: "The Cheeses of Greece"; Aging Cheeses; a list of cheeses