Irregular Plurals or Irregular Plural Noun List, based on the names itself, these are different from regular plural nouns. All the basic details along with the list are captured in this session so that it can be remembered easily. Let’s explore!

Irregular Plurals

Basic of Irregular Plurals

Irregular plurals or irregular plural nouns, as the name suggests, are different from regular plural nouns. These plurals do not have any rules. We have already learned, adding ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of a singular noun to make it plural.

But what about if we consider man or deer or child and try to change into plural nouns?

Can we add ‘s’ or ‘es’ here?

Will these be changed like, 

• a man to mans?
• or deer to deers?
• or child to childs? 

No! These are not correct plurals in English.

In English Grammar, we say,

• Man to men
• Deer to deer
• Child to children

So, there are no rules here and these kinds of nouns are irregular plurals and we will learn more than 100 irregular plural nouns here.

What are Irregular Plural Nouns?

The plural nouns which are not obeying any rules like regular plurals are called irregular plurals or irregular plural nouns. Sometimes, these are called unusual plurals, due to its unusual behavior.

Irregular plural nouns do not become plural by adding ‘s’ or ‘es’, or any other rules. 

Example of Irregular Plurals

There are thousands of irregular plural nouns in English Grammar. Let us take two examples,

• aircraft
• bison

In the case of aircraft or bison, plurals are aircraft and bison respectively instead of aircrafts or bisons. So, no change here.

Irregular plurals

How to remember the irregular plural nouns list?

So, it is very normal to ask that if there are no rules, how can we remember thousands of irregular plural nouns? It is simple, we have to practice. So, remember to,

• Read
• Write
• Speak
• Practice

We have captured more than 100 irregular plural nouns widely used in our daily life. I hope, we can learn the most important irregular plurals.

However, we have developed a few tricks as rules so that it will be easy to remember. Before going to the list, we will learn the rules.

Check out our ANIMATED VIDEO!

Rules of Irregular Plural Nouns

Rule#1 There are few singular nouns, which is not change anything when it is changed into plural nouns.

Rule#2 There are few singular nouns, where many letters are changed or the entire letters are modified when it is to be made plural forms.

Rule#3 Some nouns are always singular. They have no plural form.

In the case of many uncountable nouns, the singular form is used to refer to the entire quantity rather than one, two, or more countable items.

• flour
• gold
• silver
• sugar
• water

Rule#4 Some nouns have no singular form. These nouns are always plural.

• jeans
• binoculars
• cards
• games
• clippers
• darts
• gymnastics
• diseases
• dominoes
• ethics
• glasses
• linguistics
• mathematics
• economics
• measles
• trousers
• physics
• pants
• police
• rabies
• robbers
• politics
• scissors
• shorts

Rule#5 There are few nouns that have an identical form of singular and plural nouns and both end with ‘s’.

• barracks,
• crossroads,
• headquarters,
• means,
• species

Rule#6 Some nouns are used with modifiers. If that is the case, change the noun, not the modifiers. In a hyphenated compound word, you must change the first word into plural form.

Rule#7 Some nouns may have two different kinds of plural.

Fish has two plurals.

• Fish
• Fishes

Fish (General Purpose)

• Normally we use the plural noun fish.
• Example – I have caught a few fish. Here, few fish mean more than one but the plural noun ‘fish’ is used.

Fishes (it refers to individual fish)

• She loves aquarium and she has given different names to different fishes. Here, many fishes as all fishes are named individually.

Rule#8 Certain plural nouns are used as a singular.

Example,

• Mathematics
• News
• Luggage
• Politics

Sentence example,

• Mathematics is not a difficult subject if you understand properly.
• The news is really very encouraging for the youth.

Rule#9 Collective nouns are usually singular, even though they might sound plural.

For example,

• Ambush
• Flock
• Herd
• Bunch

In the above, although ambush, flock, herd, bunch, etc. refer to the group but acts as a single item.

Rule#10 Non-countable nouns do not have plural forms.

For example,

• Water
• Soup
• Ketch-up
• Sugar

Sentence examples,

• Water is deep. Here, water used as a singular noun.

Rule#11 Few nouns ending with ‘s’ only have a plural form when it has a certain meaning.

• Customs (it means customs services at the airport),
• Goods (things or merchandise, not the opposite of bad),
• Arms (it refers to weapons here instead of limb)

So, we have learned basic tricks to remember irregular plural nouns, lets check the list of 100 irregular plurals.

100 Irregular Plural Nouns List

We have made a list of more than 100 examples of irregular based on our daily uses. This list is provided with a remark so that we can remember easily.

Let’s explore, 100 irregular plural nouns list.

Sl. No.	Singular	Plural	Remarks
1	aircraft	aircraft	No change in aircraft, not added any extra letter
2	Alumna	Alumnae	‘a’ changed into ‘ae’
3	Antenna	antennae	‘a’ changed into ‘ae’
4	Apex	apices	‘ex’ changed into ‘ices’
5	Axis	axes	‘is’ changed into ‘es’
6	arms	arms	It refers to weapons, not the limb
7	barracks	barracks	No change in barracks
8	basis	bases	‘is’ changed into ‘es’
9	beau	beaux or beaus
10	binoculars	binoculars	No change in binoculars
11	bison	bison	No change in bison
12	brother-in-law	brothers-in-law	The main word ‘brother’ is changed, no change in modifiers
13	bureau	bureaux or bureaus
14	cactus	cacti	‘us’ changed into ‘i’
15	cards	cards	No change in cards
16	chick	chicken	Word is changed in chicken
17	child	children	Word is changed in children

18	clippers	clippers	No change in clippers
19	cod	Cod, cods
20	codes	codies	‘es’ changed into ‘ies’
21	corps	corps	No change in crops
22	corpus	corpora
23	crisis	crises	‘is’ changed into ‘es’
24	criterion	criteria	‘on’ changed into ‘a’
25	crossroads	crossroads	No change in crossroads
26	customs	customs	It refers to the airport, not practices
27	darts	darts	No change in darts
28	deer	deer	No change in deer
29	diagnosis	diagnoses	‘is’ changed into ‘es’
30	die	dice or dies
31	diseases	diseases	No change in diseases
32	dominoes	dominoes	No change in dominoes
33	Daughter-in-law	daughters-in-law	The main word ‘daughter’ is changed, no change in modifiers
34	economics	economics	No change in economics
35	editor-in-chief	editors-in-chief	The main word ‘editor’ is changed, no change in modifiers
36	elf	elves
37	Ellipsis	ellipses	‘is’ changed into ‘es’
38	ethics	ethics	No change in ethics
39	faux pas	faux pas
40	fireman	firemen	Word is changed in firemen
41	fish	fish	No change in fish. Fish sometimes changed into fishes based on the irregular plural noun rules.
42	foot	feet or foot

43	fungus	fungi	‘us’ changed into ‘i’
44	gallows	gallows
45	games	games	No change in games
46	genus	genera or genuses
47	glasses	glasses	No change in glasses
48	goods	goods	It refers to merchandise, not related good or bad
49	goose	geese	Word is changed in geese
50	grandson-in-law	grandsons-in-law	The main word ‘grandson’ is changed, no change in modifiers
51	grouse	grouse	No change in grouse
52	guest of honor	guests of honor	The main word ‘guest’ is changed, no change in modifiers
53	guts	guts	courage, not intestines
54	gymnastics	gymnastics	No change in gymnastics
	There are so many worksheets for irregular plural nouns available on the internet.
55	headquarters	headquarters	No change in headquarters
56	jeans	jeans	No change in jeans
57	knife	knives	‘fe’ changed into ‘ves’
58	larva	larvae	‘a’ changed into ‘ae’
59	leaf	leaves	‘f’ changed into ‘ves’

Irregular plural nouns list three

60	linguistics	linguistics	No change in linguistics
61	louse	lice	Word is changed in lice
62	man	men	Word is changed in men
63	mathematics	mathematics	No change in mathematics
64	means	means	No change in means
65	measles	measles	No change in measles
66	Minister of education	ministers of education	The main word ‘minister’ is changed, no change in modifiers
67	moose	moose	No change in moose
68	mother-in-law	mothers-in-law	The main word ‘mother’ is changed, no change in modifiers
69	mouse	mice	Word is changed
70	nebula	nebulae or nebulas
71	news	news	No change in news
72	offspring	offspring or offsprings
73	opus	opera or opuses
74	ox	oxen	Word is changed
75	pants	pants	No change in pants

Irregular plural nouns list four

76	person	people	Word is changed
77	physics	physics	No change in physics
78	police	police	No change in police
79	politics	politics	No change in politics
80	quail	Quail or quails
81	rabies	rabies	No change in rabies
82	robbers	robbers	No change in robbers
83	runner-up	runners-up
84	salmon	salmon or salmons
85	scissors	scissors	No change in scissors
86	series	series	No change in series
87	sheep	sheep	No change in sheep
88	shorts	shorts	No change in shorts
89	shrimp	shrimp or shrimps

90	Son-in-law	Sons-in-law	The main word ‘son’ is changed, no change in modifiers
91	species	species	No change in species
92	swine	swine	No change in swine
93	thesis	theses
94	tooth	teeth	Word is changed
95	trousers	trousers	No change in trousers
96	trout	trout or trouts
97	tuna	tuna or tunas
98	woman	women	Word is changed
99	wolf	wolves
100	wife	wives

Conclusion

So, we have learned a big list, around 100 irregular plural nouns which we use in our daily life. If you have any doubt please feel free to write to us.

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