Plural of Bus

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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