Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Nouns which do not adopt a distinct plural form

Nouns with a final unstressedsyllable ending in -s, and those which end

in -xdo not change in the plural:

la crisis las crisis crisis/crises

el virus los virus virus/viruses

el fax los fax fax/faxes

2.1.4.1

(^1111) 2.1.4
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

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Plural forms

of nouns

15

Spelling changes as a result of forming plurals(see also 1.3.2)

1 Nouns which end in -zchange this to -cbefore the plural ending

-es: voz > voces‘voice/s’ (see Table 1.1).

2 Nouns ending in -nor -swhich have a written accent in the final

syllable, will no longer require the written accent after adding

-es: avión > aviones ‘plane/s’, huracán > huracanes‘hurricane/s’,

botellín > botellines‘small bottle/s’, andén > andenes

‘platform/s, pavement/s, sidewalk/s’, inglés > ingleses

‘Englishman/English people’.

3 Nouns containing combined vowels of which one is íor ú,retain

the accent after adding -es: raíz> raíces‘root/s’, baúl> baúles

‘trunk/s’.

4 Nouns which end in -enwill require a written accent to maintain

the correct stress in the plural: imagen >imágenes‘image/s’,

resumen> resúmenes‘résumé/s’, dictamen> dictámenes

‘report/s’.

5 The following words have irregular plurals in that the stressed

vowel (underlined) changes: carácter> caracteres‘character/s’,

régimen> regímenes‘regime/s, diet/s’, espécimen> especímenes

‘specimen/s’.