Tomatos or Tomatoes – Which is Correct?

If you are eating Italian, Spanish, or South American food, there is a high probability that your dish will contain the delicious red food that goes by the name tomato.

The tomato is often thought to be a vegetable, but it is technically the fruit of the tomato plant. Tomatoes are delicious and contain many essential nutrients for human health.

But what should we call more than one tomato? Are these fruits tomatoes or tomatos?

Pluralization can be complicated in English, but there is an easy way to remember how to spell this word. Continue reading to learn more.

What is the Plural of Tomato?

In this article, I will compare tomatos vs. tomatoes. Which of these is the correct plural spelling?

I will outline the correct plural form of tomato, and I will show you a helpful memory tool that will allow you to choose between tomatoes and tomatos with only minimal stress.

When to Use Tomatoes

plural spelling of tomato How do you spell tomato? The singular spelling of tomato doesn’t contain the letter “E,” so it is somewhat understandable that people would get confused when the plural does.

  • The correct plural spelling is tomatoes.
  • Tomatos is a common misspelling.

Tomatoes, its plural form, means more than one tomato.

A tomato is a red, fleshy fruit that ripens in the summer are native to South America. The Spanish brought them back to Europe after colonizing the New World, and they are now an important part of regional cuisines across the globe.

Tomatoes are green before they ripen, and some of them turn yellow or orange instead of red. When ripe and fresh, they have an acidic, sweet flavor.

These sentences are examples of tomatoes in context,

  • Tommy went into the garden and picked a few fresh tomatoes for dinner.
  • Dad was annoyed because all of his tomatoes were being eaten by small caterpillars.
  • Thousands of people pelted each other with ripe tomatoes Wednesday, creating a red, mushy mess in the annual Tomatina street battle in Buñol, a town in eastern Spain. –The Washington Post

The original Nahuatl word is tomatl. The Spanish adapted this word into tomate, and English speakers changed it once again to tomato.

When to Use Tomatos

tomatoe or tomatoThere could arguably be more than one way to pronounce the word tomatoes, but there is only one way to spell it. Tomatos is an incorrect pluralization of tomato.

Some English words that end in O form plurals by adding -s, like volcanos and zoos. Other words, like potato and tomato, form plurals with -es, making potatoes and tomatoes, respectively.

The chart below, which graphs tomatoes vs. tomato over time, shows that virtually no one uses tomatos in printed English.

tomatos versus tomatoes

In other words, avoid tomatos at all costs.

Trick to Remember the Difference

When pluralizing tomato, tomatoes is always the correct word.

There is no easy rule for remembering which words that end in O take -s or -es in the plural. Luckily, however, there is a trick to remembering that tomato is one of the -es words: it rhymes with potato, which also becomes potatoes as a plural. These rhyming words can be your clue as to the correct spelling of tomatoes.

Summary

Is it tomatos or tomatoes? A tomato is a red, fleshy fruit that grows on a vine.

  • The plural of tomato is tomatoes.
  • Tomatos is an incorrect pluralization.

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