Plurals that end in -x in French

Read more about how to use Plurals that end in -x in French.
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Plurals that end in -x

For nouns and adjectives ending in -eau, -au, -eu, we add an -x to the plural forms.


singular
plural
mon beau château (my beautiful castle)
mes beaux châteaux
un noyau de cerise (a cherry stone)
des noyaux de cerise
un jeu nouveau (a new game)
des jeux nouveaux
Exceptions alert: The nouns pneu (tire/tyre) and landau (pram) as well as the adjective bleu (blue) all take an –s in their plural form.

un landau bleu → des landaus bleus a blue pram

For nouns and adjectives which end in -al in their singular form, we add -aux to the plural form.


singular
plural
un cheval génial (a great horse)
des chevaux géniaux
un journal original (an original newspaper)
'des journaux originaux

Exceptions alert: Nouns such as carnaval (carnival), festival (festival), chacal (jackal), récital (recital), and the adjectives fatal (fatal), banal (banal), natal (native), naval (naval) all take an -s in their plural form.

un festival naval (a naval festival)
des festivals navals
un beau récital (a beautiful recital)
de beaux récitals

The following words hibou (owl), caillou (pebble), chou (cabbage), bijou (jewel), genou (knee), joujou (toy), pou (louse) take an -x in their plural form. Other words ending in ou take an -s in the plural.

un hibou (an owl)
des hiboux
un caillou (a pebble)
des cailloux
un fou (a madman)
des fous

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