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Added by admin November 3, 2013

Plural form of French words ending with ‘-al’ & ‘-ail’.

Do you guys know any words ending with –al? I’m sure you’ve heard of “le festival” or “le carnaval” or maybe even “le journal”. You’ve also learned that, to form the plural of nouns in French, just like in English actually, you add an –s at the end.

Well, for words ending in –al, only the exceptions follow the general rule with the usual ‘–s’… So let’s start with the exceptions for once:

le bal/les bals, le carnaval/les carnavals, le festival/les festivals,

le chacal/les chacals, le régal/les régals, le cal/les cals

Every other ‘–al’ ending words take on the ‘–aux’ form in the plural.

le journal/les journaux, le canal/les canaux, le mal/les maux, le cheval/les chevaux

Got that? Awesome!

Now let’s look at the plural of words ending with ‘–ail’.

They are much more conformist than their ‘–al counterparts’ since they generally take an ‘–s’ in the plural form. Examples: 

épouvantail/épouvantails – détail/détails – cocktail/cocktails

Here’s the list of exceptions though:

bail/baux – corail/coraux – émail/émaux – soupirail/soupiraux – travail/travaux – ventail/ventaux – vitrail/vitraux

Careful not to mix up the 2 types of words mentioned here. The confusion is easy. The only difference between the 2 is that cheeky “i” nestled in between the ‘a’ and the ‘l’.

Bon travail! Essayez d’éviter les maux de tête! (Good work! Try to avoid headaches!)

Soso