MEPX
Chapter 7 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Why English is like this
  2. 2Doubling consonants
  3. 3Adding endings
  4. 4The i before e rule
  5. 5Words people mix up
  6. 6The commonly misspelled
  7. 7Plurals and possessives
  8. 8British and American
  9. 9Spell checkers
  10. 10Getting better

Chapter 7 of 10

Plurals and possessives

Two different endings.

Plurals

Most add s or es. Consonant plus y becomes ies. Some f endings become ves: knife, knives. Latin and Greek words often keep original forms: criterion, criteria.

  • Words ending in -sis become -ses: analysis, analyses.
  • Never use an apostrophe to make a plural.

Possessives

Add apostrophe s for singular, apostrophe alone after a plural s. Its is possessive with no apostrophe, because possessive pronouns never take one.