Tomates verdes fritos: the plural in Spanish
n Spanish, the singular is used to refer to a unique thing, and the plural is used to refer to a group of things. The plural also affects adjectives, as they must agree with the noun in grammatical gender and number. In general, plurals in Spanish are formed by adding -s or -es to the singular form of the word. The choice of suffix depends on the letter with which the word ends in the singular form, and as we will see, there are some exceptions.
Nouns or adjectives ending in a unstressed vowel or stressed -a, -e, or -o: They are formed with -s. Nouns or adjectives ending in an unstressed vowel or a stressed -a, -e, or -o form their plural by adding -s. For example, la mesa becomes las mesas, la clase becomes las clases, and el espagueti becomes los espaguetis. Similarly, el camino becomes los caminos, la tribu becomes las tribus, la mamá becomes las mamás, el café becomes los cafés, and el bordó becomes los bordós.
Nouns or adjectives ending in stressed -i or -u: Nouns or adjectives that end in stressed -i or -u can form their plural by adding either -es or -s, although in standard usage, the plural in -es is preferred. For example, el bisturí can become los bisturíes or los bisturís, and el tabú can become los tabúes or los tabús.
Nouns or Adjectives Ending in -s or -x: if they are monosyllabic or have more than one syllable and are agudas (meaning the stressed syllable is the last one), they form the plural with -es. For example, la tos becomes las toses, el fax becomes los faxes, and el holandés becomes los holandeses. If they are graves (where the stressed syllable is the penultimate one), they do not change in the plural: la crisis becomes las crisis and el tórax becomes los tórax.
Nouns and Adjectives Ending in -l, -r, -n, -d, -j: if the final consonant is preceded by a vowel, they form the plural with -es. For example, el farol becomes los faroles, el bar becomes los bares, el ratón becomes los ratones, la pared becomes las paredes, and el reloj becomes los relojes.
Nouns and Adjectives Ending in -z: nouns and adjectives that end in -z form the plural with -es, and additionally, the final z is replaced by c. For example, el arroz becomes los arroces and el pez becomes los peces.
Nouns Ending in -ch: there are few nouns ending in -ch, and they come from other languages. They can remain unchanged in the plural, or form the plural with -es. These are generally words of infrequent use. There are two common ones: el sándwich, los sándwiches, and el sketch, los sketches.
Compound Nouns: they remain unchanged. El ciempiés, los ciempiés. El abrelatas, los abrelatas, el parabrisas, los parabrisas, el rascacielos, los rascacielos.
Days of the Week: all days of the week remain unchanged in the plural, except for sábado and domingo. El lunes, los lunes, el martes, los martes, el miércoles, los miércoles, el jueves, los jueves, el viernes, los viernes, el sábado, los sábados, el domingo, los domingos.
Although there are some additional rules, they refer to words that are rarely used in the language, and I believe this is enough information for this article. Moreover, with these rules, you will be able to form the plural of all commonly used words. Thank you for reading!
Bibliografía
Real Academia Española. (n.d.). Plural. En Diccionario panhispánico de dudas. Recuperado el 27 de noviembre de 2024, de https://www.rae.es/dpd/plural
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