Given the doubts generated by the formation of the plural of words ending in -y (convoy, jersey, gibberish), the three cases that can occur are offered below.
1. law-laws
nouns and adjectives Spanish or fully adapted to Spanish ending in -y preceded by vocal forman the plural adding the syllable -eswhich, as indicated by the Grammarimplies that the y acquires consonant value. In this way, plurals have been consolidated in the language. laws, oxen, viceroys y convoys from ley, ox viceroy y convoy, voices that have followed the phonetic laws of Spanish in their evolution.
So in ‘Several machinery convoys were intercepted and attacked’ it would have been appropriate to write ‘Several machinery convoys were intercepted and attacked’.
2. pullover-sweaters
As an exception to the above rule, some nouns and adjectives ending in -y preceded by vocalnormally of foreign origin and later incorporated into Spanish, keep the diphthong and form the plural by converting the y in i and adding a swithout thereby altering the sound of the word: the y of the singular and the i the plural are pronounced the same (gay-gays o jersey-jerseys).
In this case, remember that the -y in word-final position it is not considered a vowel for the purposes of graphic accentuation. So, jersey does not have an accent because it is acute ending in a consonant other than -n o -sbut pullovers yes because it is sharp and ends in -s. On the other hand, the plain variant jersey It is written with a tilde because it does not end in -n, -s or vowel, and its plural is yerseiswithout tilde for being plain ending in -s.
Therefore, what is appropriate is “He wanted to innovate with knitted jumpers that are even more modern than they seem” and not “He wanted to innovate with knitted jumpers that are even more modern than they seem.”
3. Guirigay-guirigayes/guirigáis
Finally, there is a small group of nouns ending in -y preceded by vocal what admit the two previous plurals, with preference for the addition of the ese; is the case, for example, of guirigay the one of backstaywhose plurals are you go/sparrows y you are/estayesrespectively.
Thus, examples such as “He liked nothing more than to follow with the camera the gibberish that his characters rode” or “A stays schooner is a sailing ship with two or more masts” are appropriate.