Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[gsjackie]

Dear teacher:

Would you please tell me how to know the plural of a noun ending with "o" ? What should I put behind the word? "s" or "es"?

zoo => zoos
piano => pianos
bamboo => bamboos
mosquito => mosquitos (less frequent ) / mosquitoes


Is there any easy way to deal with this problem?

[Lorikeet]

No. Because you also have potato > potatoes, tomato > tomatoes and avocado > avocados. In fact, there is a famous American misspelling, by then vice-president Dan Quayle, in which a flashcard he was using had the spelling of "potato" as "potatoe". When the student spelled it "potato" he told him to add an "e". Here's the story from one perspective:
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html

Here's the story from another:
http://www.rightgrrl.com/carolyn/potatoe.html