Can you make these nouns plural?
Can you spell the plural form of these singular nouns?
- Asterisk
- Attorney general
- Court-martial
- Cul-de-sac
- Die (noun)
- Embryo
- Jack in the box
- Jack-o-lantern
- Knight-errant
- Low life
- Manservant
- Mongoose
- Monsieur
- Needle in a haystack
- Oasis
- Parenthesis
- Passerby
- Pelvis
- Plateau
- Runner up
- Scissors
- Series
- Sister-in-law
- Stick in the mud
- Syllabus
- Talisman
- Vertebra
Not sure about some of these? You’re not alone. Finding the correct singular and plural forms can be crazy making. Here’s some guidance.
In most cases, you make a compound noun or noun phrase plural in the same way you would any noun. You add an -s or -es to the noun. The trick with something like “hole-in-the-wall” is to identify the “head” noun and make it plural. With “hole-in-the-wall”, the head noun is “hole” because “in-the-wall” modifies the noun. So, the correct plural is “holes-in-the-wall.” Jack took me to several holes-in-the-wall on our first date.
To complicate this even further, there are irregular nouns that cannot be made plural by adding an -s or -es. (index/indices, phenomenon/phenomena) With most of these, you have to memorize the plural form or look it up in a dictionary or style guide.
Keeping these guidelines in mind, here are the answers to our plural form quiz. (Reference: Merriam-Webster.com)
- Asterisks
- Attorneys general
- Courts-martial
- Culs-de-sac
- Dice
- Embryos
- Jacks in the box
- Jack-o-lanterns
- Knights-errant
- Low lifes
- Menservants
- Mongooses
- Messieurs
- Needles in haystacks
- Oases
- Parentheses
- Passersby
- Pelvises
- Plateaus
- Runners up
- Scissors
- Series
- Sisters-in-law
- Sticks in the mud
- Syllabi
- Talismans
- Vertebrae
Readers . . . how did you do?
