When s is not enough
Try saying “boxs” out loud. Your mouth gets stuck. The word needs more room at the end.
That is why some nouns take es instead of just s.
“one box” becomes “two boxes”
Which nouns need es
Add es when the word ends with one of these:
- s or ss: bus becomes buses, glass becomes glasses
- x: box becomes boxes, fox becomes foxes
- ch: bench becomes benches, lunch becomes lunches
- sh: dish becomes dishes, brush becomes brushes
Those endings already make a hissing or shushing sound. One more s would crowd two sounds together. The e gives your mouth somewhere to land.
The listening test
Say the word with just an s on the end. If you cannot say it without stopping, it needs es.
| Word | Try just s | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| dish | dishs (hard to say) | dishes |
| cup | cups (easy) | cups |
| bench | benchs (hard to say) | benches |
| hen | hens (easy) | hens |
Listen for the extra beat in “dishes” and “benches”. Each one takes longer to say than the word it came from. That is the e doing its job.
A mistake to watch for
The rule is about the letters at the end. It is not about how long the word is. “brush” is short and needs es. “farmer” is longer and only needs s.
Check the ending, not the size.
Your turn
Write the word that means more than one.
- “one fox”
- “one bench”
- “one book”
- “one glass”
Check your answers
- “foxes”
- “benches”
- “books”
- “glasses”
Remember
- Add es after s, ss, x, ch, and sh.
- Say it out loud. If it gets stuck, it needs es.
- Check the ending of the word, not its length.