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Most nouns take an 's' in the plural form. (This 's' is never pronounced.)

'croissant'	(masculine)
singular	le croissant
plural	les croissants

Les croissants au beurre ont des pointes vers l'extérieur.
Les croissants à la margarine ont des pointes vers l'intérieur.

(The fact that the plural 's' is silent in French can be startling at first: in English that's how we know a word is plural or not. In spoken French it is the article not the noun which changes pronunciation to indicate plurality. 'Croissant' and 'croissants' are pronounced the same way, but 'le' is different from 'les'.

Sometimes it can be hard to let go, hard not to pronounce that final 's' in the plural, hard to trust that your audience will still understand that your noun is plural. But they will understand, as long as your article is clearly pronounced.)

If a noun already ends in 's', you can't add another 's':

'month'	(masculine)
singular	le mois
plural	les mois

Le mois de février a 28 jours, les mois d'avril, de juin, de septembre et de novembre ont 30 jours, et les autres mois ont 31 jours.

Nor can you add an 's' to a word ending in 'x'

'voice'	(feminine)
singular	la voix
plural	les voix

Dans mes rêves, j'entends des voix. Surtout, j'entends la voix de ma mère qui me dit " Réveille-toi ! Tu vas arriver à l'école en retard ! "

And the same goes for words ending in 'z'

'rice'	(masculine)
singular	le riz
plural	les riz

On cultive le riz sauvage dans le Minnesota. Le riz sauvage est un des riz qui sont cultivés aux États-Unis.

Irregular plural forms

Nouns ending in 'al' change to 'aux' in the plural (the 'x' is not pronounced):

'horse'	(masculine)
singular	le cheval
plural	les chevaux

Edgar Degas aimait peindre les chevaux à Longchamp, près de Paris. Aujourd'hui, on peut toujours miser (place a bet) sur un cheval à Longchamp.

Nouns ending in 'ail' also change to 'aux' in the plural (the 'x' is still not pronounced):

'work'	(masculine)
singular	le travail
plural	les travaux

Le travail d'une mère ne cesse jamais.
Attention aux travaux sur l'Autoroute du Soleil !

Nouns ending in 'eu' use 'x' instead of 's' to form the plural:

'hair'	(masculine)
singular	le cheveu
plural	les cheveux

Ma mère a les cheveux roux. Mon père a un cheveu blanc.

Similarly, nouns ending in 'eau' use 'x' instead of 's' to form the plural:

'castle'	(masculine)
singular	le château
plural	les châteaux

Le château de Versailles est plus grand que tous les autres châteaux en France.

Special cases

Some nouns have special plurals

The plural form of 'l'oeil' (eye) seems to bear little resemblance to the singular form. The 'x' on the plural is not pronounced.

un oeil (eye)

des yeux (eyes)

The plural form of 'l'oeuf' (egg), looks regular, but in fact it sounds different from the singular form.

in       un oeuf	the final 'f' is pronounced
in      des oeufs	the final 'f' is not pronounced (nor is the final 's')

Click on a word to hear it pronounced.

Similarly, the plural form of 'l'os' (bone), looks regular ('les os'), but it also sounds different from the singular form.

in       un os	the final 's' is pronounced
in       des os	the final 's' is not pronounced

As a final note, certain words borrowed from English take an English plural:

le sandwich	les sandwiches
le match de football	les matches de football or les matchs de football