In English, there are two numbers: Singular and Plural.
Singular Number: When one noun or pronoun is spoken of, it is singular. Eg: Boy, Lady, Dog, etc.
Plural Number: When more than one noun or pronoun is spoken of, it is plural.
Eg: Boys, Buses, Trees, etc.
* General rules of forming plurals:-
i) Some nouns form their plural form by adding '-s' and '-es' to its singular form.
ii) Noun ending in 's, sh, ch, o, x and k' takes 'es' in their plurals.
iii) Noun ending in 'y' preceded by a consonant change 'y' into 'I' and adds 'es' in their plural and that ending in 'f' and 'fe', changes into 'v' and adds 'es'.
Few examples:-
** Plural formed by 's, es, ies, and ves':
** Plural formed by changing vowels:
** Plural formed by adding '-en':
** Singular nouns with two plurals with different meanings:
** Nouns with two meanings in singular but one in the plural:
** Nouns with one meaning in singular but two in the plural:
** Nouns having different meanings in different numbers:
** Noun Singular in form but plural in sense:
Aristocracy, Nobility, Gentry, Cattle, Poultry, Folk, Clergy, People, etc.
** Noun Plural in form but Singular in sense:
News, Economics, Mathematics, Politics, Smallpox, etc.
** Noun having no plural form:
Alphabet, Furniture, hair, Luggage, Poetry, Off-spring, Information, off-spring, etc.
** Noun having no Singular form:
Alms, Annals, Ashes, Assets, Bellows, Billiards, Bowels, Dregs, Measles, Mumps, Odds, Proceeds, Scissors, Shears, Spectacles, Thanks, Wages, Aborigines, Species, Amends, etc.
** Noun having same form in both numbers:
Apparatus, Cannon, Corps, Deer, Innings, Means, Public, Series, Sheep, Species, Score, Dozen, etc.
** Foreign Plurals:
** Numbers of Pronouns: