plurals

[Casiopea]

edited

I was hoping for exceptions. :(

From what I see they all fit into rule 1:

1. Use -s if the word ends in a consonant + o. Error. It should read "Use -es if the word ends in a consonant + o. *This rule is incorrect. Please ignore.

All the best,

[MikeNewYork]

I was hoping for exceptions. :(

From what I see they all fit into rule 1:

1. Use -s if the word ends in a consonant + o.

All the best,

Erm...you now have me confused. Your first rule says:

There are three general rules.

1. Add -es if the word ends in consonant+o:
hero, heroes
potato, potatoes
tomato, tomatoes.

I produced a partial list that had words ending in a consonant + o that formed a plural with -s, not -es. Did I misunderstand?

[MikeNewYork]

[
That's quite a list--quite a long list. Where did you find all those?

:)

Well, Cas's rules sounded good, particularly because I was unaware of any regularity for these plurals. But then I thought of several exceptions to rule 1. So I went to onelook.com and searched on [*bos], [*cos], and [*dos]. I stopped there. The hard part was weeding out those that have two accepted plurals, -os and -oes. This is even more complicated because, even when both are accepted, the first (preferred) listing varies between the two spellings with no real rhyme or reason.

I will do more at some other time. :wink:

[Casiopea]

I was hoping for exceptions. :(

From what I see they all fit into rule 1:

1. Use -s if the word ends in a consonant + o.

All the best,

Erm...you now have me confused. Your first rule says:

There are three general rules.

1. Add -es if the word ends in consonant+o:
hero, heroes
potato, potatoes
tomato, tomatoes.

I produced a partial list that had words ending in a consonant + o that formed a plural with -s, not -es. Did I misunderstand?

:D No, no. I'm the one who has everyone, including myself, confused. Sorry about that. Your list is wonderful, and much needed, too. You've given me some wonderful data to look at, ponder, and play with. Thanks.

Appreciatively,

[MikeNewYork]

:D No, no. I'm the one who has everyone, including myself, confused. Sorry about that. Your list is wonderful, and much needed, too. You've given me some wonderful data to look at, ponder, and play with. Thanks.

Appreciatively,

Phew! You're very welcome. I am a committed word buff. I love to explore little quirks. :wink:

[Casiopea]

Write a rule for making the plurals of words ending with O

Hello Thomas,

Sorry about my previous post. It was incorrect. I hope the following information will make up for that. :)

Is it -os or -oes?

a. For most words that end in -o, simply add -s for the plural form. These include:

1) words of Spanish or Italian origin, especially those connected with music e.g. cello/cellos, piano/pianos, soprano/sopranos, concerto/concertos;

2) words where there is another vowel in front of the -o e.g. studio/studios, patio/patios, zoo/zoos, cuckoo/cuckoos, kangaroo/kangaroos

3) words that are abbreviations e.g. rhino/rhinos (rhino = rhinoceros), hippo/hippos (hippo = hippopotamus), kilo/kilos (kilo = kilogram), photo/photos (photo = photograph)

There are some exceptions.

A) Certain words ending in -o take -es for the plural form. These include: domino/dominoes, echo/echoes, hero/heroes, potato/potatoes, tomato/tomatoes

B) Certain words ending in -o can take either -es or -s. These include:
mango/mangoes (or mangos), mosquito/mosquitoes (or mosquitos), tornado/tornadoes (or tornados), volcano/volcanoes (or volcanos)

All the best,

[RonBee]

Good find, Cas! :D

(Note: dominos or dominoes.)

:)