Thus, they are not governed by this rule.)a For the purposes of this book, vowels are the letters of the alphabet that make the sounds of speech – a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. The other letters of the alphabet are known as consonants.
3.7 Plurals of nouns
Most nouns form the plural by adding -s to the singular, as in book/books.
Words ending in o, s, x, ch, sh or z form the plural by adding -es, as in echo/echoes, boss/bosses, box/boxes, church/churches, bush/bushes, buzz/buzzes.
Words ending in y change y to ie and add -s, if the y is preceded by a consonant, as in sky/skies, city/cities. If the y is preceded by a vowel, it simply adds -s, as in monkey/monkeys.
The plural of most words ending in f is -ves, as in loaf/loaves, thief/thieves. Exceptions are roof/roofs, chief/chiefs.
There are many irregular plural endings that cause spelling problems; for example:ox/oxen, child/children, brother/brethren – although brothers is used in most instances these daysdeer/deer, sheep/sheep, fish/fish – though fishes is used for multiple types of fishmouse/mice – though mouses is used for the devices used with a computerplateau/plateaux – though many foreign words have now been anglicised, and this plural can be plateaus; likewise, memorandum/memoranda or memorandumscriterion/criteria seems to be immovable – ‘criterions’ is still not acceptabledatum/data – but data is now used in a singular sense tooagendum/agenda – it is very rare to see the singular used at all; indeed, agendas is now an acceptable plural of agenda in a singular sense, as in ‘We seem to have two agendas for this meeting’.
Use your dictionary if you are not sure.
Note: Do not use the apostrophe s to indicate plural. There is a modern and quite incorrect tendency to write, for example, onion’s to mean more than one onion. Apostrophe s is only ever used for the plural where a final s without an apostrophe would be confusing, as in Dot your is (meaning Dot your i’s).
3.8 Plurals of compounds
There are ‘rules’ – more strictly observed than ‘conventions’ – in English for the treatment of compounds. If a compound contains one or more nouns, the principal noun takes the plural marker; thus, we have attorneys-general, editors-in-chief, brothers-in-law. If the compound does not contain a noun, the plural marker goes at the end of the whole compound, as in sing-alongs, fill-ins, walk-ons. There are exceptions to these rules, as there are to many ‘rules’ in English – for example, it is now debatable whether one should write attorneys-general or attorney-generals. Spoken English changes all the time, and it takes written rules a while to catch up. So, we might be comfortable saying something that we would still hesitate to put into writing. A good guide to follow when such dilemmas occur is ‘Err on the conservative side until you are sure that the innovation is acceptable’. One such innovation (though not a compound) is singular they, them, their: it seems natural now to say ‘Anyone (singular) who has not paid their subscription will be removed from the list of members’ to avoid the cumbersome his/her or even just his, assuming that this masculine pronoun also includes the feminine.
3.9 Possession in nouns
One problem area that deserves special attention is the spelling of words that show possession. In English we use the apostrophe to show possession in nouns – words that name things – so:
This is John’s desk. The book’s cover is torn. The children’s singing was charming. It is nearly the animals’ feeding time.
How do you know where to put the apostrophe?
There is a very simple procedure that you can apply to all nouns in the English language. First, realise that the apostrophe is not inserted into anything – it is always placed immediately after the possessing noun. Here is the three-step procedure you can follow:
Step 1: Write the possessing noun down. It may be a singular or plural noun – just write it in whichever is the appropriate form.
Step 2: Add an apostrophe. This is an automatic procedure – don’t even think about it.
Step 3: Decide whether an s after the apostrophe is needed. Say the word aloud. If it sounds right without the s, stop at the apostrophe. If it only sounds right when you add the s, add it.
Examples
the book of the boy
Step 1: boy (possessing noun)
Step 2: boy’
Step 3: boy’s (Add s because boy’ + book alone sounds wrong)
the boy’s book
the tiara of the duchess
Step 1: duchess (possessing noun ending in s sound)
Step 2: duchess’
Step 3: duchess’s
the duchess’s tiara
This is Australian Commonwealth style, as recommended in the Style manual for authors, editors and printers
