Potato, Potatoes : Words ending in O
Never know when to end a word in o, os, or oes?
Goodness gracious me! I am sure that there must be a secret school for greengrocers and fruit and veg employees ... where they are taught a difficult and secret way to use apostrophes at the end of vegetables. It is a miracle if I ever see a sign outside a greengrocer which *doesn't* have an apostrophe where it isn't needed!
[Feel free to send photos of offending signs to share with us!]
Words ending in O do NOT - I repeat - do NOT need an apostrophe *s* to make it plural!!!
When a singular word ends with a consonant (non-vowels) and o,
it is normal to add es to form a plural:
| | |
potato
|
potatoes |
| Exceptions - no *e* before *s*
| |
piano solo silo merino dynamo |
pianos solos silos merinos dynamos |
| When a singular word ends with yo or io, add an s:
| |
studio radio embryo folio curio |
studios radios embryos folios curios |
What does it all mean??!
A noun is a naming word or an object (e.g. shoe, house, computer, employee).
Examples:
one potato
two potatoes
two potato's is WRONG
one tomato
three tomatoes
three tomato's is WRONG
one piano
two pianos
two piano's or pianoes is WRONG
one studio
five studios
five studio's is WRONG
Unless you have a school teacher who is correcting your work, you probably have no-one who proofreads for you, who can spot the errors ... and yet it is so important. As working adults, many of us are required to do a fair amount of writing for our jobs, no matter which field we are in, so taking the time to learn grammar, apostrophes, punctuation, parts of speech and commonly misspelt words, will be a skill we can build on and improve with practice. Good luck!
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Much as I appreciate somebody pointing out that apostrophes should not be used to form plurals, I find it a pity that on a site lecturing people about their spelling, punctuation and grammar 'misspelled' has been written 'misspelt' - another common, and very irritating mistake, in fact.
Thank you for writing Nathalie!
It's always a pleasure to hear from someone in the world who has read my website. It's quite common for some people to think that the grammar and spelling they learnt at school is the only way - more often than not these people have been from the USA, but some from other countries have also incorrectly assumed that what they learnt is the world's rule. :-)
Nathalie, each country which teaches English has its own grammar, spelling and punctuation rules. In my country, the text you have criticised is considered to be correct. Your country may well have different rules, but please remember that there are many rules which are reflected in my website. Thanks again for sending in your opinion - always welcomed!
PS - please read the footer which appears on the bottom of each of my webpages.