Confusing irregular plural forms in English

It may sound basic, but many people struggle with irregular plural forms in English even when they have reached a high level of fluency. After all, you normally add an “s” at the end of a word and, magically, you have a plural form. That’s true with most words, but not all.

So, let’s review some of these confusing plural forms.

Let’s look at some examples when the “s” expresses a possessive, not a plural form. In these cases, you might hear “s” and think it’s a plural when it isn’t.

1. A man’s home is his castle.

2. Men’s clothes are on the first floor.

3. A woman’s future is bright.

4. Women’s future is bright.

5. A child’s book is colourful.

6. Children’s books are colourful.

7. There were a lot of sheep and cows on the field. (notice that sheep is a plural)

8. There are plenty of fish in the sea

9. I don’t like to see mice in the underground

There are not many exceptions to the normal rule of adding an “s” to form a plural, but most of the exceptions are words used daily, so it’s important to focus on them because you use them very often. And you don’t want other people to think that you don’t know the basics, do you? Of course not! Your English is great. 😊