Study Resource: English nouns with ‘-ves’ plurals
By: Isabel McKay
The following nouns, which end with -f or -fe, have plurals that end in -ves.
Singular | Plural | Vowel change? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
leaf | leaves | no | |
wife | wives | yes | |
knife | knives | yes | |
roof | (rooves)/roofs | sometimes | in some dialects, roof has a short vowel, so there is a vowel change |
hoof | hooves/(hoofs) | usually | in most dialects, hoof has a short vowel, so there is a vowel change |
loaf | loaves | no | |
wolf | wolves | no | |
calf | calves/calfs | no | |
thief | thieves | no | |
half | halves | no | |
life | lives | yes | |
shelf | shelves | no | |
dwarf | dwarves/dwarfs | no | |
wharf | wharves/wharfs | no | |
staff (“walking stick”) | (staves)*/staffs | yes (in irregular) | the -ves plural is very old-fashioned but it is sometimes used in old writing or in historical fiction |
elf | elves | no |
