La pluralización de los sustantivos en español

*The pluralization of nouns in Spanish*

     How do I form plurals in Spanish? Do plurals even exist in Spanish? Well, yes they do. Just like we have in the English language, singular nouns can be changed to plural by following some simple guidelines or rules. For example: book - books, dog -dogs, as you can see these nouns were realized simply by adding an “s”. Then there are the intricate ones like child -children, shelf -shelves, knife -knives, etc.

      In the same way, Spanish nouns are formed just by following some rules and adding some simple suffixes.
So my friends bearing in mind that plural simply means a form of a word that shows you are talking about more than one thing, person etc. You're just one step ahead.

So how are they formed?

-Nouns that end in a vowel
  The nouns ending in either of these vowels (a, e, i, o, u) to form their plural, just add "s".
Por ejemplo:   el chico (boy) - los chicos (boys)
                         la manzana (apple) - las manzanas (apples)
                         el coche (car) - los coches (cars)
                         el tabú (taboo) - los tabús (taboos)
                         el champú (shampoo) - los champús (shampoos)

Fíjate: Some nouns that end in stressed "i" and "u" like esquí and tabú are formed plural by adding "s" or "es" por ejemplo: esquí (ski) - esquís o esquíes (skis), tabú (taboo) - tabús o tabúes (taboos).

-Nouns that end in consonants are made plural by adding “es”.
Por ejemplo:    el botón (button) - los botones (buttons)
                          el móvil (mobile phone) - los móviles (mobile phones)
                          el profesor (lecturer) - los profesores (lecturers)
                          el reloj (watch) - los relojes (watches)
                          el rey (king) - los reyes (kings)
                          el color (colour) - los colores (colours)
                          el mes (month) - los meses (months)
                          el borrador (eraser) - los borradores (erasers)
                          el examen (exam) - los exámenes (exams)
LEARN YOUR SPANISH VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

-In nouns that end in “ción”, “sión” o “ión” the accent is dropped in the plural form.
Por ejemplo: la felicitación (congratulation) - las felicitaciones (congratulations)
                        la movilización (mobilization) - las movilizaciones (mobilizations)
                        la insinuación (insinuation) - las insinuaciones (insinuations)
                        la instalación (installation) - las instalaciones (installations)
                        la diversión (diversion) - las diversiones (diversions)
                        la televisión (television) - las televisiones (televisions)
                        el avión (airplane) - los aviones (airplanes)

-In nouns that end in “z”, to form the plural, the “z” changes to “c”, then the suffix “es” is added.
Por ejemplo (For example):   el pez (fish) - los peces (fishes)
                                                  la voz (voice) - las voces (voices)
                                                  el lápiz (pencil) - los lápices (pencils)
                                                  la actriz (actress) - las actrices (actresses)

- Some nouns that end in “s” or “x” with unstressed last syllable remain the same form, however the only thing required to be changed for it to become plural, is the article; therefore the article changes from singular to plural. LEARN YOUR ARTICLES
Por ejemplo: your days of the week like:    el lunes (Monday) - los lunes (Mondays)
                                                                       el martes (Tuesday) - los martes (Tuesdays)
                                                                       el miércoles (Wednesday) - los miércoles (Wednesdays)
                                                                       el jueves (Thursday) - los jueves (Thursdays)
                                                                        el viernes (Friday) - los viernes (Fridays)
                                                                       la tesis (thesis) - las tesis (theses)
                                                                       el tórax (thorax) - los tórax (thoraxes o thoraces)

-Nouns that are compound nouns are always masculine therefore, the plural is formed by using the article “los”.
Por ejemplo:   el sacapuntas (pencil sharpener) - los sacapuntas (pencil sharpeners)
                         el guardarropa (wardrobe) - los guardarropa (wardrobes)
                         el lavavajillas (dishwasher) - los lavavajillas (dishwashers)
                         el abrelatas (tin opener or can opener) - los abrelatas (tin openers or can openers)
                         el paraguas (umbrella) - los paraguas (umbrellas)

Fíjate: -Some nouns in Spanish just like in English do not have plural forms like “la salud (health)”, “el tenis (tennis)”. While some only have plural form like “las tijeras (scissors)”, “las gafas (glasses)”.

             -When there are mixed genders in the same location, the masculine noun is used.
Por ejemplo: 1 chico (boy) + 2 chicas (girls) = 3 chicos (3 boys)
                       1 gato (male cat) + 3 gatas (female cats) = 4 gatos (4 cats)

  -To form plurals in Spanish the masculine article is “los” and the feminine article is “las”.