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Singular noun forms that whose spelling ends in a silent e form the regular plural with the ending -s. Alternatively, they could be analysed as dropping the silent e and adding the ending -es, particularly where the consonant is sibilant and there is an identical verb (which would drop the e before the ending -ing): "a dance"→"some dances" parallels "it dances"→"it is dancing" better under such analysis. This applies to nouns that end in ce and (d)ge.
Uniquely in American English, the nonstandard pronunciations of processes (/ˈpɹɒsɛˌsiːz/) and biases (/ˈbaɪəsiːz/), where -es is pronounced like ease, is due to influence from plurals like parentheses and hypotheses, and perhaps even bases.
However, processes is also, unusually, pronounced /ˈpɹəʊ̯sɛsiːz/ in England and /ˈpɹoʊsɛsiːz/ in Canada.
Etymology 2
From Middle English-es, -is, from Old English-es, -as, Northern variants of -est, -ast(second person singular indicative ending). Replaced Middle English -eth, from Old English-eþ, -aþ. The falling together of the second and third person singular verb forms in Old English is believed to be due to Scandinavian influence, where the employment of the same verbal endings for both 2nd and 3rd singular indicative follows a similar pattern to that seen in Old Norse (e.g. þú masar, hann masar; þú þekkir, hann þekkir; etc.).
Suffix
-es
Used to form the third person singular present indicative of regular verbs:
1573, An exposition of the kinges prerogative, collected out of the great Abridgement of Justice Fitzherbert and other olde writers of the lawes of England, page 38:
... whereupon king Henry his sonne, as it may appeare by the later clause of this chapter, recouered diuers eschet[s] of lande within this Realme holden by Normans, whiche after they began to adhere to the French king, the kinges enimy[…]
From *-h₁i-t-, from Proto-Indo-European*h₁ey-, the root of eō, īre(“to go”). Because the nominative singular would regularly have developed to *-is, the attested ending *-es has to be explained as an analogical replacement based on the alternation between -ĕ- in the closed final syllable of the nominative singular and -ĭ- in the open medial syllable of oblique forms that developed regularly in other nouns as a result of the sound change of vowel reduction.[1]
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “comes”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 129
From Latin-ēs(2nd conj.), -is(3rd conj.), -īs(4th conj.).
Suffix
-es
forms the 2nd-person singular present indicative of 2nd and 3rd conjugation verbs
forms the 2nd-person singular present subjunctive of 1st conjugation verbs
forms the 2nd-person singular negative imperative of 1st conjugation verbs
Etymology 2
From Latin-ēs(accusative plural of masculine and feminine 3rd-declension nouns)
Suffix
-es
forms the plural of nouns and adjectives ending in -r, -z, stressed -s and of some ending in -n
Etymology 3
From Old Galician-Portuguese-ez, further origins unknown. The preferred options are that it was either an internal innovation (from a reanalysis of the genitive in names ending with -ricus, ie. -rici, as naming suffix) or a borrowing from pre-Roman languages (given the various forms the suffix took in the Middle Ages). Compare Spanish-ez.
Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “-es”, in ニューエクスプレスプラス ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Plus Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 48
Yaron Matras (2002) “Historical and linguistic origins”, in Romani: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 39
Spanish
Etymology 1
From Latin-ēs, the accusative plural ending of most third declension nouns.
Suffix
-es
suffix indicating the plural of nouns and adjectives ending in certain consonants (most often -l, -r, -n, -d, -z, -j, -s, -x, -ch, with some exceptions).
Etymology 2
From Latin-ēs, Latin-is, and Latin-īs, the second-person singular present active indicative endings of second, third, and fourth conjugation verbs, respectively.
Marks the present tense passive of verbs of the second and fourth conjugations (weak and strong -er verbs respectively) that have stems ending in s.
Usage notes
Verms whose stems do not end in -s normally take the -s suffix for the passive voice. Until the middle decades of the 20th century (approximately), the norm in writing was to use -es with all -er verbs, but this use is considered archaic today.
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “-es”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies