All Things Relevant to Learning English: 'S' Endings in English

There are three instances when we add an 's' (or 'es') to the end of a word in English. They are:

1. Plural 's' is used when we change a noun from singular to plural.

hat / hats

car / cars

You must add 'es' for nouns that end in 'ch', 'sh', 's', 'x', and 'z'.

watch / watches

box / boxes

For nouns that end in a consonant + 'y', you must take off the 'y' and add 'ies'.

lady / ladies

city / cities

If the noun ends in a vowel +'y', just add 's'.

boy / boys

day / days

If the noun ends in 'f' or 'fe', we take off the 'f' or 'fe' and add 'ives'. But not in all cases, Sometimes we only add 's'. The difference is, if the ending 'f' has a soft 'f' sound we add only 's', but if it has a hard 'f sound, we add 'ives'.
cliff / cliffs

roof / roofs

thief / thieves

wife / wives

If the noun ends in 'o', we add either 's' or 'es'. If a vowel comes before the 'o', we add only 's'. If a consonant comes before 'o', we add 'es'.
radio /radios

disco / discos

tomato / tomatoes

hero / heroes

2. When using simple present third person singular (he, she, it).

Mr. Smith plays tennis everyday.

She writes to her mother all the time.

The earth spins on its axis.

You must add 'es' for verbs that end in 'ch', 'sh', 's', 'x', and 'z' or end in consonant + 'o'.

He always washes clothes on Saturday.

Mother fixes broken clocks in her free time.

Sally does housework on Fridays.

She goes to school four days a week.

Verbs ending in vowel + 'y', just add 's', but verbs ending in consonant + 'y', take off the 'y' and add 'ies.
She plays the piano well.

Mother worries too much.

3. When showing possession. In this case we add 's' to the end of a name and it means 'belonging to someone' (someone, a person or people).

That is Mary's book.

The Smith's house is green.

If the name already ends in 's', then we just add an apostrophe ( ' ) at the end of the word.

That is the Jones' car.

The Wess' store was robbed last night.

These are the three rules for adding an 's' to the end of a word in English. I hope this is helpful . Also, please feel free to leave a question or comment in the comment box below. (Click on the word 'comments' and it will open), or you can email me.

~Have a great day!

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