Making plurals: -s, -es, z → ces

What a plural is

A noun is a word for a person, a thing or a place: libro (book), casa (house), amigo (friend). A noun is singular when there is one and plural when there are more than one.

In Spanish, when the noun becomes plural, the article changes with it: el → los, la → las, un → unos, una → unas (see Articles: el, la, los, las; un, una, unos, unas). There are only three spelling rules to learn.

Rule 1: the noun ends in a vowel, add -s

• Los libros son de Ana.The books are Ana's.
• Las clases son interesantes.The classes are interesting.

Rule 2: the noun ends in a consonant, add -es

A consonant is any letter that is not a vowel (a, e, i, o, u).

The same rule works for a final -y: el rey (king) → los reyes.

• Los hoteles son caros.The hotels are expensive.
• Las flores son para ti.The flowers are for you.

Rule 3: z becomes c, then add -es

Spanish doesn't write z before e or i. The sound stays the same, but the spelling changes to c (you met ce, ci in Letters that surprise English speakers):

• Los lápices son de Pablo.The pencils are Pablo's.

Watch the written accent

The stress stays on the same syllable, but the plural has one more syllable, so the accent rules from Word stress, written accents, ¿ and ¡ can add or remove the written mark:

• The accent disappears: la canción → las canciones, el autobús → los autobuses, el inglés → los ingleses, la estación → las estaciones.
• An accent appears: el joven → los jóvenes, el examen → los exámenes.
• It stays: el país → los países (the accent on í keeps a and i as separate syllables).

• Las canciones son muy bonitas.The songs are very nice.
• Los jóvenes son de Madrid.The young people are from Madrid.
• Los padres de Lucía son ingleses.Lucía's parents are English.

Words that don't change

A word that ends in -s and is not stressed on the last syllable stays the same. Only the article shows the plural: el lunes → los lunes (Mondays), la crisis → las crisis, el paraguas → los paraguas (umbrellas).

• Los lunes son difíciles.Mondays are hard.

Mixed groups use the masculine plural

A group of men and women takes the masculine plural:

• los hermanos = brothers, or brothers and sisters;
• los padres = parents (or fathers);
• los amigos = friends (male, or a mixed group).

• Son unos amigos de Pedro.They're friends of Pedro's.

Learn each new noun with its article and you'll always know which plural article to use.

Common mistakes

• los lápizes → los lápices. Before -es, z always becomes c.
• las canciónes, los autobúses → las canciones, los autobuses. The accent goes away in the plural.
• los jovenes → los jóvenes. Here an accent appears.
• los luneses → los lunes. Unstressed -es/-is words don't change.
• el libros → los libros. The article must become plural too.

Latin America: the rules are exactly the same. Because most speakers there pronounce z and ce/ci like s (seseo), lápices sounds like "lápises", but it is still spelt with c.