English as an Additional Language/Plural forms of nouns

Generally, making plurals (more than 1 of something) is very easy in English.

Plural Formation
For almost all nouns we form the plural by adding s.


 * I have an apple
 * I have 5 apples.

For nouns which end with the letter y we form the plural by removing the y and adding ies.


 * I have a fly
 * I have 5 flies.

For nouns which end with the letter s (dress), ch (beach), x (box), sh (bush) or z (quiz), we form the plural by adding es.


 * I have a bus.
 * I have 5 buses.

Irregular Noun Plural Formation
There are also a small number of nouns which are irregular. The first word in the following list is the singular form and the second word is the plural form:


 * child - children
 * man - men
 * woman - women
 * foot - feet
 * tooth - teeth
 * goose - geese
 * mouse - mice
 * fish - fish
 * sheep - sheep
 * deer - deer
 * advice - advice
 * information - information
 * data - data

As you can see, with some words there is no change to form the plural. The plural form and the singular form are exactly the same.