Pluralbildung

Spanish plurals are more regular than English ones: there is no "mouse, mice" or "child, children". Look at the last letter of the singular and one of four rules applies. Remember that the article changes too: el becomes los, la becomes las.

The z to c change is a spelling rule, not a sound change: Spanish writes ce, ci rather than ze, zi. So it is una vez, dos veces and el arroz, los arroces (as in the many rice dishes of Valencia), never *lápizes.

Words ending in -s with the stress on the last syllable do add -es: el autobús, los autobuses; el mes, los meses; el inglés, los ingleses. Only an unstressed final syllable stays the same, which is why the weekdays from Monday to Friday do not change: Trabajo los lunes y los viernes.

The written accent can come or go

Adding a syllable can move a word into a different stress pattern, so the accent mark adjusts to keep the stress where it was:

• it disappears: estación, estaciones; canción, canciones; francés, franceses
• it appears: joven, jóvenes; examen, exámenes

The sound of the word does not change; only the spelling follows the stress rules (see "The Spanish alphabet and pronunciation").

Mixed groups take the masculine

A masculine plural covers a mixed group: los niños can be boys only or boys and girls; mis padres is "my parents" and mis hermanos "my brothers and sisters"; los Reyes are the King and Queen of Spain. English speakers looking for a word for "siblings" or "parents" will find that this is it.

English habits to drop

English adds "-s" to almost everything, so learners write *ciudads or *profesors. The rule is simple: consonant, then -es. And because the article and adjectives agree, a plural changes the whole phrase: la playa bonita, las playas bonitas.