Plural formation
The app has no separate screen for the plural rules. What it has instead: the Plural formation and Plural class sections of Select noun groups (each group's ⓘ sheet explains its pattern and lists its nouns), the singular and plural on every noun's detail screen, and the Singular / Plural drill. The rules are gathered here for reference.
Spanish forms the plural by adding -s or -es to the singular. Which one depends on how the singular ends.
| Singular ends in… | Plural | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| an unstressed vowel, or stressed -á, -é, -ó | add -s | libro → libros, casa → casas, café → cafés |
| a consonant (other than -s after an unstressed syllable) | add -es | flor → flores, mes → meses, ciudad → ciudades |
| -z | change z to c and add -es | luz → luces, vez → veces, lápiz → lápices |
Stress and written accents. Adding -es adds a syllable, but the stress stays on the same syllable. So a written accent can appear or disappear in the plural:
- examen → exámenes, joven → jóvenes — the accent appears, because the stress is now on the third syllable from the end.
- canción → canciones, avión → aviones — the accent disappears, because the stress now falls on the second syllable from the end of a word ending in -s, which needs no accent.
The Accent shift in plural group collects the nouns where this happens.
Unchanged in the plural. Nouns that end in -s or -x after an unstressed syllable keep the same form; only the article changes:
- days of the week: el lunes → los lunes, el martes → los martes
- many compounds: el paraguas → los paraguas, el cumpleaños → los cumpleaños
- words such as la crisis → las crisis
The Invariable singular/plural group collects these nouns.
Nouns with only one number. Some nouns are used only in the singular (mass nouns such as la leche) and some only in the plural (los pantalones, las gafas). They are in the Mass / uncountable and Plurale tantum groups.
To practise the rules, use Singular / Plural.