12.1.4

Plural Nouns

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Plural

To make most masculine nouns plural all you need to do is add 's'. But there are some irregular nouns that have different endings.

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Adding 's'

  • For most masculine nouns, all you need to do to make them plural is add an 's'.
    • Le chien 🐕 → Les chiens.
    • Le bagage → Les bagages.
    • Le conseil → Les conseils.
    • Le lit 🛏️ → Les lits.
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Nouns ending in 'ail' or 'al'

  • Nouns that end in 'ail' or 'al' change to 'aux'.
    • Le travail → Les travaux.
    • Le journal → Les journaux.
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Nouns ending in 'eau, ou, eu'

  • Nouns that end in 'eau' change to 'eaux'.
  • Nouns that end in 'ou' change to 'oux'.
  • Nouns that end in 'eu' change to 'eux'.
    • Un gâteau → des gâteaux.
    • Un bijou → des bijoux.
    • Un jeu → des jeux.

Feminine Plural

For almost all feminine nouns, you from the plural by adding an 's'.

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Add an 's'

  • La maison 🏠 → Les maisons.
  • La journée → Les journées.
  • La série → Les séries.
  • La matière → Les matières.
  • La confiture → Les confitures.

Irregular Plurals

Some words in French do not change from singular to plural. They are irregular. Words that already end in 's', 'x' or 'z' do not change.

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Ending in 's', 'x' or 'z'

  • Le prix → Les prix - the price → the prices.
  • Le bus → Les bus - the bus → the bus.
  • Le virus → Les virus - the virus → the viruses.
  • La voix → Les voix - the voice → the voices.
  • Le gaz → Les gaz - the gas → the gases.
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Irregular plurals

  • Some nouns are just irregular, there are no patterns to learn their plural do here they are:
    • Un œil → Des yeux 👀 - an eye → eyes.
    • Monsieur → Messieurs - sir → sirs.
    • Madame → Mesdames - mrs → ladies.
    • Mademoiselle → Mesdemoiselles - miss → ladies

Jump to other topics

1The Changing Nature of Family

2The 'cyber-society'

3The Place of Voluntary Work

4Diverse Society

5The Marginalised

6How Criminals Are Treated

7A Culture Proud of its Heritage

8Cinema: the 7th Art Form

9Demonstrations, strikes – who holds the power?

10Politics & Immigration

11Conjugation & Use of Tenses

11.1Present Tense

11.2Perfect Tense

11.3Imperfect Tense

11.4Future Tense

11.5Conditional Tense

11.6Future Perfect Tense

11.7Conditional Perfect Tense

11.8Pluperfect Tense

12Extra Grammar

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