Reefs? Why not Reeves?

[user789653241]

Ds was reading some articles about coral reefs and asked me.
A bit embarrasing, but I don't have a clue.
Also we tried to think of words that follow the same rule, but couldn't think of any.
Can anyone help, please?

'cos reeves looks rubbish.

wharf, dwarf

Thanks, Sir.

Reefs, wharves, dwarfs (unless you're Tolkien when it's dwarves). There isn't a rule unfortunately

Thanks, mrz.
So, this is one of irregular ones, right?
English language is very interesting.

Reefs is regular (just add s for plural).

Irregular plurals: calves, wharves, sheep, children, men, people, mice, teeth, geese (etc etc).

Also - "reeves" does occur, as the plural of the noun "reeve", meaning local official.

Oh, thank you, Lark! I am totally confusing myself now.

A reeve is also a female ruff (a kind of wading bird).

LarkDescending but I'm not sure the existence of reeve is why it kept the simple add s plural, people are also prefering roofs, chiefs which don't have ve words (I've thought up better examples!)

Interesting about wharfs, I'd certainly spell it without the ves, but I do see that whilst not completely unknown, it is much less common.

And what about rooves?

I'm glad you asked about rooves as I was thinking about this the other day. I'm sure in the 70's we were taught that roof becomes rooves ,but that doesn't seem to be the case now

It's not rooves. It's roofs

Just googled it,it's out dated but not incorrect. Hooray, I'm not going mad

FYI: The plural of beef is beeves!

Rooves/roofs, wharfs /wharves, dwarfs/dwarves are all listed on my dictionary as alternative spelling.
When I looked up "reef" before posting here, there was no plural form listed, and that's the reason I posted this question.

So, is it ok to assume if the word doesn't have plural form on the dictionary, regular rule apply, so just add "s" to make it plural?
I am not a native English speaker, so common sense or general knowledge from exposure doesn't apply to me!

The plural of reef is always reefs. Unfortunately, there is no clever way of knowing which nouns ending f or fe follow which rules

From Google.

Thanks!

regular ones

Cos English is mental, innit.

"So, is it ok to assume if the word doesn't have plural form on the dictionary, regular rule apply, so just add "s" to make it plural? " I wouldn't rely on it.