The rule about making plural nouns is pretty simple. Look at these two pictures and say, which letter makes plural nouns.
Of course you’re right. We have to add the letter -ы to make a plural noun.
Another very important rule you need to know is that we never have the letter ы after these letters:
к г ш щ ж ч х
So what should we do in case if a word ending in one of these letters? For example:
банк – a bank
парк – a park
гараж – a garage
In case if you have к, г, ш, щ, ж, ч, х in the end we have to add the letter –и:
банки – banks
парки – parks
гаражи – garages
The same thing happens if we have the soft sign (ь) or й in the end. But the difference is that we replace (not add) them with -и:
ночь – ночи (a night – nights)
отель – отели (hotel – hotels)
музей – музеи (museum – museums)
Also I would like to remind you that some Russian nouns end in vowels ( –а / –я). We call them feminine nouns. More about it here.
In case with а or я in the end we do the same thing. We use -ы or -и. But we replace (not add) the last letter. We replace -а with -ы and we replace -я with -и.
машина – машины NOT!!! машинаы (a car – cars)
идея – идеи (an idea – ideas)
And don’t forget about the impossibility to have -ы after one of these letters (к, г, ш, щ, ж, ч, х).
девушка – девушки NOT! девушкы – a girl – girls
собака – собаки – a dog – dogs
The rest part of nouns I haven’t told you yet ending in -о or -е. Nouns ending in -о or -е (neuter gender nouns) make plural in a little different way. For neuter nouns we have to replace -о with -а and we replace –е with –я.
окно(a window) – окна(windows)
море(a sea) – моря(seas)
Let’s summarize everything we have just learned:
Also we have some exceptions that make plural in a different way.
PLURAL NOUNS EXCEPTIONS
- Друг – Друзья (friend – friends)
- Брат – Братья (brother – brothers)
- Муж – Мужья (husband – husbands)
- Жена – Жёны (wife – wifes)
- Сестра – Сёстры (sister – sisters)
- Дерево – Деревья (tree – trees)
- Стул – Стулья (chair – chairs)
- Город – Города (city – cities)
- Паспорт – Паспорта (passport – passports)
- Ребёнок – Дети (child – children)
- Человек – Люди (person – people)
- глаз – глаза (eye – eyes)
- дом – дома (house – houses)