pluralize

Pluralize is the process of forming a plural from a noun or pronoun to indicate more than one entity. In many languages plural forms are produced by inflection or by adding separate markers. Pluralization interacts with morphology, syntax, and sometimes semantics, and rules vary across languages and dialects.

In English, plural formation is usually regular but with exceptions. The default is -s (book -> books). If a word ends with s, x, z, sh, or ch, -es is added (box -> boxes). If a consonant precedes y, the y becomes -ies (city -> cities; baby -> babies); day -> days is an irregular but common pattern. Irregular forms include man/men, woman/women, child/children, mouse/mice, and foot/feet. Some nouns are fixed in both forms (sheep, deer), and some borrow plural forms from other languages (cactus/cacti; fungus/fungi).

In computing, pluralize often denotes a function or routine that returns the plural form given a count. For example, outputting "1 item" versus "2 items." Many languages and frameworks provide libraries or locale data to handle pluralization automatically, including rules for irregulars and locale-specific plurals.

Pluralization is language dependent and can be complex. Some languages use multiple plural categories beyond singular and plural. For software and localization, correct pluralization improves readability and accuracy, and is typically supported by i18n tools that separate singular and plural resources per language.