The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (13 page)

Spelling rule #6: If a word ends in
o,
we simply add an
s:

There are some exceptions to this rule. A few words that end in an
o
that is preceded by a consonant use the
es
ending. This special group of words is rapidly shrinking.

There used to be three times as many words in this group, and some dictionaries still offer either spelling, but today, the preferred spelling is the simple
s:

Note that if the word is an abbreviation, we simply add an
s:

Spelling rule # 7: When forming plurals of hyphenated words, the general rule is to give the plural ending to the most important word, which is usually a noun.

Spelling rule #8: There are numerous irregular plurals:

Note that
women, children,
and
oxen
date back a thousand years to the Anglo-Saxon.

Spelling rule #9: Some nouns are always singular. They have no plural form.

Some nouns are always plural and have no singular form:

And some words are neither singular nor plural, or perhaps they’re both:

English contains numerous foreign words that have not been anglicized, and their plurals are often spelled in different ways. But many of these are changing, sometimes right before our eyes. Our prickly friend the cactus, for example, may now be pluralized to
cactuses
instead of
cacti,
although most botanists prefer to use just
cactus
for both the singular and the plural. As for the poor old hippopotamus, in the herd, they are now
hippopotamuses
or, better still, just
hippos
.

The reduction of long, awkward words to short, clear abbreviations, such as
hippo,
is quite acceptable. For example, the piano was once called the
pianoforte
. Similarly gladioli or gladioluses are more commonly called
glads
and chrysanthemums are most often referred to as
mums
.

Of course, there are some who decry this modernizing of old and familiar words, but it fits the historic pattern. English has always taken words and changed them, and the changes have almost always been toward a simpler spelling that fits the spelling rules. In Italian, for example, the plural of
maestro
is
maestri,
but since we have borrowed the word, we give it the English plural,
maestros
.

Some words with irregular plurals may or may not be in the process of change. Only time will tell. Consider the following examples:

Note that the plural of
staff
is
staffs
or
staves
, depending on the meaning.