Plural of Sheep | Definition & Examples

Sheep is both the singular and plural form of the noun “sheep.” Sheep is the correct form whether you are referring to one sheep or many, but the verb (e.g., is or are) that follows “sheep” changes depending on whether it’s singular or plural.

What is the plural of “sheep”?

The plural of sheep is sheep, but it’s worth remembering that sheep is also the singular form.

Sheep is an irregular plural noun called a zero plural. Zero plurals are plural nouns that remain the same as the singular form.

What are irregular plurals?

Irregular plurals deviate from the standard rules of pluralization in English. Regular plural nouns are typically made plural by simply adding “-s” or “-es” to the end of a word (e.g., cat/cats and glass/glasses).

However, irregular plural nouns follow different rules due to where they originate from. Words of Greek origin are made plural by changing the “-is” to “-es” (e.g., diagnosis/diagnoses and crisis/crises).

Latin-derived singular nouns ending in “-um” change to “-a” and singular nouns ending in “-us” change to “-i” (e.g., curriculum/curricula and stimulus/stimuli).

There are other irregular plurals that come from many other languages, such as Old English (e.g., man/men) and Dutch (e.g., hoof/hooves).

Frequently asked questions about the plural of sheep

Is “sheep” plural?

Sheep is both singular and plural. Sheep is an irregular plural noun called a zero plural, which is where the word remains the same whether it’s the singular or plural form.

Scribbr’s free Grammar Checker will ensure you’re using the plural of sheep correctly.

What is a zero plural?

A zero plural is a type of irregular plural noun that stays the same whether you refer to the singular or plural (e.g., sheep/sheep and aircraft/aircraft).

Scribbr’s free Grammar Checker will ensure you’re using the correct singular or plural form in all of your online documents.