The trouble with English is that it changed dramatically when the Normans conquered the English. For this reason, lots of words that were around before the Norman conquest have different rules from those that were added by the French.

You have most of the important rules and exceptions. There are others. Some involve changing the vowels and many involve animals — like

mouse ==> mice

louse ==> lice

goose ==> geese

woman ==> women

man ==> men

Others have the same word — like

deer ==> deer

elk == elk

Then there are some strange ones. The plural of Index can be either Indexes or Indices — with “indices” being preferred. The former fits the rules you have above — so many people use it instead. Many plural words have changed to fit your rules. For example, the word ‘peas’ is a plural word for a common vegetable. The singular form used to be ‘pease’ — but the language has changed to conform to the rules — and ‘pea’ is now used as the singular.

The f ==> ves rule is also changing. It would be correct to refer to a ‘herd of beeves’ — but most Americans would probably say ‘herd of beef.’

Not all ‘x’ words use the ‘xes’ ending. The best example of this is the word ‘oxen.’

Exceptions In English Language

Billy’s toy — The toy belongs to Billy, so the apostrophe goes after his name.

The girls’ house — The house belongs to all the girls, so the apostrophe goes after “girls.” IIt does NOT get another “s.”

Exception: if the plural form of a word doesn’t end in “s,” as in women, then add the “s”: women’s rights.

To show that two words have been combined and letters have been left out, put an apostrophe where the letters were removed:

it’s = it is

haven’t = have not

she will = she’ll

3. Ending words with “ick” or “ic”

When a word ends with an “ick” sound, it will be spelled “ick” if the word has 1 syllable:

trick, pick, stick

Spell it “ic” if it has 2 or more syllables:

clinic, sarcastic, panic

Exceptions are almost all cases of compound words (two words combined to form one word), such as:

candlestick or seasick

If you can separate an “ick” word into two separate smaller words, then it is probably an exception.

4. Adding suffixes to words ending in “e” and “y”

When adding a suffix to a word, there are a few simple patterns that will help.

Words ending in a silent “e”

When the suffix begins with a vowel, drop the “e”:

like = liking

noise = noisy

Exception: When the word ends with a “ce” or “ge,” keep the “e” when you’re adding “able” or “ous” to the word:

service = serviceable

courage = courageous

When the suffix begins with a consonant, keep the “e”:

like = likeness

noise = noiseless

use = useful

Words ending in “y”

When there is a consonant before the “y,” change the “y” to an “i” before adding a suffix:

beauty = beautiful

worry = worrisome

Exception: When the suffix starts with an “i” keep the “y”:

worry = worrying

cry = crying

English is all over the place. When I was studying Spanish it was very straight forward. All letters pretty much sounded like they looked. There were no silent E’s, etc. Just practice by listening to people on TV while having the words on the screen at the same time. It will help you to see the difference between what was said and how it is spelled. Good luck.

yeah that’s true, but there’s always exceptions to those also….if a word ends is “s”, such as the car name Lexus. you wouldn’t call two of the Lexus’s. you would have to translate it to Lexi. the same rule applies with highschool and college graduates. a female graduate is an alumna, a male graduate is an alumnis. but you can’t call two of them alumnis’s. so you call them “alumni”. then there are the more extremes. what is the plural of fish? the answer is fish. what’s the plural of sheep? the answer is sheep. etc. etc. but other than weird extremities, you were correct.

Words from another language like

alumnus

in plural is alumni

This looks like a good site which would have lots of answers on it for you:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

Within the above site, here’s a page specifically about plurals:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/plurals.htm

i before e except after c

“i” before “e” except after “c” or when you hear the long “a” as in neighbor and weigh