"What's the plural of roof?"
The plural of roof is roofs.
Definition of roof:
The highest point or upper boundary of a structure, typically of a building.
Roofs or Rooves?
The plural of hoof is hooves so it's fair to guess that the plural of roof is rooves. No?
The word rooves was actually used as the plural of roof historically but is now considered to be an archaic.
The plural form of the word "roof" is "roofs." The word "roofs" is formed by adding the regular English plural suffix "-s" to the end of the word "roof." This is the correct and most common way to form the plural of "roof."
The word rooves is therefore no longer in use in modern English but you will see its entry in some, but not all English language dictionaries.
The graph below shows just how infrequently the word rooves has been used in written English since 1900.
Plural of Roof Example Sentences
Here are some examples to illustrate the difference between "roof" and "roofs":
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"The roof of the house was damaged in the storm." - In this sentence, "roof" is a singular noun referring to the top covering of the house.
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"The roofs of the houses in the neighborhood were damaged in the storm." - In this sentence, "roofs" is a plural noun referring to the top coverings of multiple houses.
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"I need to fix the leak in the roof." - In this sentence, "roof" is a singular noun referring to the top covering of a specific structure.
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"I need to fix the leaks in the roofs of the buildings." - In this sentence, "roofs" is a plural noun referring to the top coverings of multiple buildings.
Roofs vs. rooves
The graph shows the occurances of the plural of roof in written English since 1800 using Google's Ngram Viewer.
Fun Fact:
The use of clay tiles in roofs dates as far back as the year 10,000BC with evidence of such roofs in China and the Middle East.
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