1. Plurals

2. Add -s  Chair = Chairs  Book = Books

3. Add -es  Added to words ending in –s, sh, ch, and x  Dress = Dresses  Birch = Birches  Bush = Bushes  Box = Boxes

4. Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant  Change the y to i and add es  Fly = flies  Enemy = enemies  Lady = ladies  Salary = salaries

5. Nouns ending in y preceded by a vowel  Add –s  Monkey = Monkeys  Donkey = Donkeys

6. Ending in f or fe  Add –s –Roof = Roofs –Dwarf = Dwarfs –Chief = Chiefs  Change f to v and add –s or –es –Knife = Knives –Loaf = Loaves –Leaf = Leaves

7. Ending in o  Preceded by a vowel –Rodeo = Rodeos –Radio = Radios  Following a consonant –Hero = Heroes –Potato = potatoes –Mosquito = Mosquitoes  Italian words referring to music = s

8. Irregular  Child = Children  Woman = Women  Mouse = Mice  Tooth = Teeth  Ox = Oxen  Goose = Geese

9. Nouns + Modifier  Make noun plural –Mother-in-law = mothers-in-law –Man-of-war = men-of-war –Secretary-general = Secretaries-general

10. Same in singular and plural  Sheep  Deer  Trout  Species  Chinese

11. Foreign words  Same as in original language –Alumnus = alumni –Datum = data –Crisis = crises  -s or –es –Index = indices or indexes –Appendix = appendices or appendixes

12. Possessives Not ending ending in sin s ’s ’ ’s ’ singular plural

13.  A singular noun ending in an s or z  Add the apostrophe only if… –The noun has more than one syllable –The addition of the s would make it awkward  Examples: –The species' characteristics –Odysseus’ adventures

14.  If one syllable and ends in s…  Bus’s  Boss’s

15. Irregular  Geese’s migration  Women’s shoes  Children’s stories

16. Personal Pronouns  Do not use apostophe  His  Hers  Its  Ours  Yours  Theirs

17. Indefinite Pronouns  Use apostrophe  One’s  Everyone’s  Everybody’s  Everyone else’s  Etc…

18. Hyphenated Words  Father-in-law’s  Commander-in-chief’s

19. Two people own something individually  Tom’s and Bill’s jackets  Mike’s and Steve’s wallets

20. Compound Nouns  Showing joint possession  Jolie and Pitt’s children  My aunt and uncle’s computer