15 April 2009

Grammar: Irregular Nouns

Here is a list of some of the most common irregular  nouns in the English language. This list is not exhaustive.

Plural forms created with a vowel change:

man → men foot → feet goose → geese
woman → women tooth → teeth mouse → mice
Plural form created by adding the suffix –en
child → children ox → oxen
Plural forms created by changing f → v
thief → thieves half → halves shelf → shelves
wife → wives leaf → leaves wolf → wolves
life → lives loaf  → loaves hoof → hooves
knife → knives self → selves
calf → calves sheaf → sheaves  
Plural forms same as singular form (no change)

sheep → sheep

salmon → salmon

Chinese → Chinese

deer → deer

bass → bass

Japanese → Japanese

moose → moose

series → series

Swiss → Swiss

fish → fish

means → means

 

trout → trout

species → species

 

 No singular form – only in plural!
scissors shorts binoculars
tweezers pants clothes
tongs pajamas people
trousers (eye) glasses
slacks spectacles
 Borrowed Greek and Latin words

analysis → analyses

stimulus → stimuli

curriculum → curricula

basis → bases

nucleus → nuclei

phenomenon → phenomena

hypothesis → hypotheses

alumnus → alumni

criterion → criteria

parenthesis → parentheses

radius → radii

vortex → vortices

synopsis → synopses

syllabus → syllabi

matrix → matrices

thesis → theses

medium → media

index → indices

crisis → crises

memorandum → memoranda

 

 Borrowed from French

beau → beaux

bureau → bureaux or bureaus

château → châteaux

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