Note 1: The list is unedited, but I believe I've set it so that you can edit it if you sign in with a Google account. Please feel free to remove any obvious problems.
Note 2: The list ignores any irregulars such as bass that end with s. Feel free to add.
The top 50 are listed below:
- children
- women
- men
- police
- feet
- teeth
- personnel
- criteria
- gentlemen
- cattle
- bacteria
- sox
- grandchildren
- fishermen
- phenomena
- mice
- clergy
- businessmen
- curricula
- alumni
- policemen
- freshmen
- stimuli
- geese
- larvae
- algae
- tsunami
- congressmen
- fungi
- memorabilia
- gunmen
- coli
- schoolchildren
- nuclei
- brethren
- servicemen
- spectra
- firemen
- sushi
- craftsmen
- countrymen
- linemen
- strata
- salesmen
- nebulae
- spokesmen
- salespeople
- paparazzi
- horsemen
- sportsmen
4 comments:
This is a very cool list. Do you have one that has the singular and plural forms side-by-side?
I'm afraid I don't.
Hi, could you please explain how you built this list? For a research publication I need singular and plural nouns side-by-side. I know this was posted years ago but if you're still there, please reply. Thanks!!!
Hi, Jerome
I began by searching the COCA for [nn2*], which gives me everything tagged as a plural noun. I posted the results into column D in the spreadsheet. Then, in column C, I used the formula: =RIGHT(D1,2). This says, "give me the rightmost two characters from cell D1". The reason it's two is that all the words have a space after them. Next, I sorted by column C. Finally, I removed all the 's' plurals. I hope that helps.
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