My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

Exceptions to rule 4:
Dwarfs and chiefs
Will cause you griefs.
As will proofs, roofs, safes, beliefs.
Hooves and hoofs can either be,
So too, scarfs and scarves, you see.
To wharfs and wharves, you may refer,
And turfs and turves, as you prefer .
And just when you thought you were getting the hang of it, humans have one
life , cats have nine lives , but artists can paint as many still lifes as they like.
5.   Many words ending in o can be made plural by adding - s : zoos , kangaroos

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igloos  ,  solos  ,  sopranos  ,  discos  ,  photos  ,  Eskimos  ,  infernos  .  Others  –
seemingly chosen at random – need - es : Buffaloes have trampled my potatoes
and  tomatoes  .  If  we  sit  outside  to  play  dominoes  we  shall  be  plagued  by
mosquitoes .
6.   A number of nouns have irregular plurals, which is why we do not say Are
you mouses or mans? , and why the plural of house is houses , but the plural of
louse is lice .
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Then there’s goose/geese , tooth/teeth , child/children , ox/oxen
(but not box/boxen ).
Swot’s Corner: The plural of talisman is not talismen but talismans . Why?
Because its origins have nothing to do with man or men . The word comes to us
from Arabic and medieval Greek via French or Spanish. But of course you knew
that.
Rule: the rules always apply, except when they don’t. With irregular forms such
as child/children , sorry, you just have to learn them.