Plural Form – Is It Potatoes or Potatos or Tomatoes or Tomatos?

The English language can be quite tricky, with its share of oddities and inconsistencies, especially when it comes to forming plurals. When you think you’ve figured out the pattern, a curveball comes flying your way. In this quick guide, I’ll tackle the plural forms of potato and tomato, two words that don’t seem to follow the typical “add an s” rule. So, let’s determine which is the correct variant.

Potatoes vs. Potatos: What Is Potato in Plural Form?

The correct plural form of potato is potatoes. This might seem odd, given that most words in English simply add an s or es to become plural. But for words ending in o preceded by a consonant, like potato and tomato, the standard practice is to add es to the end. So, when you have more than one potato, you have potatoes. But this isn’t always the case, and we sometimes get incorrect spelling variants floating around.

English has borrowed many words and phrases from other languages, and sometimes, the grammar rules accompany them. In this case, potato comes from Spanish, where it’s called le patate, which translates to the potato. The English pluralization is likely a result of details lost in translation, and we kept the letter e at the end.

Other plurals formed by adding -es to words ending with -o are echoes, torpedoes and vetoes.

Tomatoes or Tomatos: What’s the Plural Form of Tomato?

The plural of tomato follows the same pattern as potato. The correct form is tomatoes, not tomatos. I know it seems confusing, especially since not all words ending in o follow this rule (think pianos or photos), but that’s English for you!

Just like the misspelling of potatoes and tomatoes, the pronunciation of potato and tomato is often up for debate. Is it poh-tay-tow or poh-taht-tow? Spoiler alert, it’s poh-tay-tow.

How Do You Spell Potato Singular?

The singular form of potatoes is spelled as p-o-t-a-t-o, without the es at the end. Similarly, the singular form of tomatoes is tomato.

Potato and Potatoes Examples in a Sentence

It’s best I show you with context, and a few full sentences should do the job!

• I carefully peeled the potato, ensuring not to remove too much of the skin because that’s where a lot of the nutrients are found.
• Molly made her famous mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was the best dish on the table.
• One raw potato contains about 110 calories and is one of the only foods you can solely survive on.
• The farmers market had a wide variety of potatoes you can get: russet, red, mini and more.

Tomato and Tomatoes Examples in a Sentence

Like potato, some tomato sentences show how to use it in its singular and plural forms.

• I thinly sliced the tomato for my BLT sandwich.
• We grew our own tomatoes in the backyard last year and plan to do so again this year.
• The tomato soup was piping hot but delicious.
• Our local supermarket had an array of tomatoes to choose from, like heirloom and cherry varieties.

Tomato Tomatoe, Potato Potatoe

Regarding English, there are always exceptions to the rules, and the plural forms of potato and tomato certainly fit that category. Remember, when these words need to be pluralized, just add es to the end. That’s the difference between a single potato and a sack full of potatoes and between a lonely tomato and a couple of tomatoes. Hope that clears things up!