Plural of Bus

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The Quick Answer
The plural of bus is buses.

Busses is an archaic plural now considered a spelling mistake.

The Plural of Bus

The plural of bus is buses.
  • Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming. (Richard Branson)
  • People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library and more time on the buses. (Simeon Strunsky)
Busses is an archaic plural, which is now considered a spelling mistake. The noun bus adheres to the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English (shown in the table below).

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The Standard Rules for Forming the Plurals

The table below shows the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English.
Type Example of Type Forming the Plural Plural
Most Nouns lamp
scythe		 add s lamps
scythes
Noun Ending s, sh, ch, x or z bus
dress		 add es buses
dresses
Nouns ending [consonant] o hero
zero
tomato		 add either s or es
(There are no rules for this - you have to know.)		 heroes
zeros
tomatoes
Nouns ending [vowel] o patio
ratio 		add s patios
ratios
Nouns ending [consonant] y story
penny		 change the y to an i and add es stories
pennies
Nouns ending [vowel] y storey ()
donkey 		add s storeys
donkeys
Nouns ending f or fe dwarf
hoof 		ves and/or s
(There are no rules - you have to know.)		 dwarfs
hooves or hoofs
Exceptions man
louse 		some nouns undergo a vowel or letters change men
lice
More exceptions salmon
sheep 		some nouns do not change at all salmon
sheep

Buses or Busses?

Busses has not been widely accepted as the plural of bus since the 1900s. In modern-day English, buses is the accepted plural of bus.

Confusion arises not only because of the historical plural busses but also because buses could feasibly be pronounced booses and so some writers, knowing how buses should be pronounced, opt for busses.

Of note, busses is the plural of buss (a North American term for a kiss).
Another Interactive Exercise
Here are three randomly selected questions from another exercise on plurals, which can be edited, printed to create an exercise worksheet, or sent via email to friends or students.

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See Also

Unusual pluralsPlural forming table Quirks with forming plurals Forming the plurals of abbreviations Forming the plurals of compound nouns