There are words, like potato where the plural form ends with es (potatoes). In which cases does a word have a plural ending with es, but the singular doesn't end with e?
Is there a rule for that, or do words like potato have an irregular plural?
plural-formsspelling
There are words, like potato where the plural form ends with es (potatoes). In which cases does a word have a plural ending with es, but the singular doesn't end with e?
Is there a rule for that, or do words like potato have an irregular plural?
Best Answer
Wikipedia gives a pretty good overview of the rules. Based on the information there (don't cite it in a paper, but it's good enough for our purposes), nouns ending in -o are accompanied by nouns ending in a sibilant sound, which is far beyond the scope of this answer. But at any rate, here's the relevant sections from the Wilipedia article on English plurals:
So in summary, add -es if: