What are the plural forms in Spanish? How to make plurals in Spanish 

Many of the plurals can be confusing, so the first thing to do is to identify the rules for forming plurals in Spanish. 

In this post we will learn the rules with examples. 

Nouns that form the plural with -s 

✔️ These are the nouns and adjectives ending in an unstressed vowel or in -e.

Examples with unstressed vowel: 

Singular	Plural	English
profesora	profesoras	teachers
estudiante	estudiantes	students
taxi	taxis	taxis
cuaderno	cuadernos	notebooks

Examples with tonic -e:

Singular	Plural	English
café	cafés	coffees
pie	pies	feet

✔️ Nouns and adjectives ending in tonic -a or -o. 

Examples with -a tonic: 

Singular	Plural	English
mamá	mamás	moms
sofá	sofás	sofas

Examples with tonic -o: 

Singular	Plural	English
buró	burós	bedside tables
dominó	dominós	dominoes

✔️ Words from other languages or belonging to colloquial or popular registers. 

Examples:

Singular	Plural	English
champú	champús	shampoos
menú	menús	menus
popurrí	popurrís	potpurris

✔️ Foreign words ending in -y preceded by a consonant, must be adapted to Spanish by changing the y for the i, whose case has the plural ending -s.

Examples:

Singular	Plural	English
ferry	ferris	ferries
panty	pantis	panties

✔️ Nouns, adjectives, onomatopoeias or words from other languages ending in consonants other than -l, -r, -n, -d, -z, -j, -s, -x, -ch.

Examples:

Singular	Plural
cómic	cómics
esnob	esnobs
chip	chips
hábitat	hábitats
ítem	ítems

✔️ Nouns and adjectives ending in a consonant group or from other languages. 

Examples: 

Singular	Plural
gong	gongs
iceberg	icebergs
récord	récords

✔️ Plural of musical notes

Examples: 

Singular	Plural
do	dos
re	res
mi	mis
fa	fas
sol	(exception) soles
la	las
si	sis

Nouns that have two plural forms, one with -es and the other with -s

✔️ Nouns and adjectives ending in -i or in -u tonics and the words club – clubs – clubs 

Examples: 

Singular	Plural	English
bisturí	bisturíes or bisturís	scalpel
tabú	tabúes / tabús	taboos

✔️ Nouns expressing nationality or place of origin (gentilics).

Examples: 

Singular	Plural	English
israelí	israelíes (more common) / israelís (less frequent use).	Israelis
marroquí	marroquíes (more common) / marroquís (less frequent use).	Moroccans

Nouns that traditionally form their plurals with -es

✔️ Nouns and adjectives ending in -y preceded by a vowel. 

Examples: 

Singular	Plural	English
rey	reyes	kings
buey	bueyes	oxens

✔️ Nouns and adjectives ending in -s or -x.

Examples:

Singular	Plural	English
compás	compases	compasses
francés	franceses	French
fax	faxes	faxes
plus	pluses	plus

✔️ Nouns and adjectives ending in -l, -r, -n, -d, -z, -j and preceded by a vowel. 

Examples: 

Singular	Plural	English
fácil	fáciles	easy
color	colores	colours
pan	panes	loaves of bread
césped	céspedes	lawns
lápiz	lápices	pencils
reloj	relojes	watches

✔️ Foreign words ending in -l, -r, -n, -d, -z, -j

Examples:

Singular	Plural
píxel	píxeles
máster	másters
interfaz	interfaces
pin	pines
sándwich	sándwiches
lord	lores
milord	milores

Plurals in Spanish Practise

Practise the words from the post in this online exercise!

Spanish Nouns that remain unchanged

Singular	Plural
crisis	crisis
tórax	tórax
compost	compost
test	test
fórceps	fórceps

✔️ Compound words whose second element is already a plural. 

Examples: 

Singular	Plural	English
ciempiés	ciempiés	centipedes
pasapurés	pasapurés	mash mills

Plural of Colors in Spanish

✔️ When colors function as nouns, they follow the same rules mentioned above. 

Examples:

Singular	Plural	English
el azul	los azules	the blues
el carmesí	los carmesíes	the crimson ones
el rojo	los rojos	the reds
el naranja	los naranjas	the oranges

✔️ When colors function as adjectives, they always agree with the noun they modify. 

Examples: 

Spanish	English
Las camisas rojas.	The red shirts.
Los pantalones verdes.	The green trousers.

✔️ When colors function as adjectives of a flower, a fruit, a substance or an object that has that characteristic color, they can be used in apposition, remain invariable or not. 

Examples: 

Spanish	English
ojos café / ojos cafeses	Brown eyes
ojos malva / ojos malvas	Mauve eyes
camisas añil / camisas añiles	Indigo shirts

✔️ When a color is modified by another word to designate shades, it is normal to keep both elements invariable in the singular. 

Examples:

Spanish	English
ojos azul claro	light blue eyes
collares grises perla	pearl gray necklaces
aguas azul turquesa	turquoise blue waters
hojas verde oscuro	dark green leaves

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