Attornies or Attorneys: Which Spelling Is Correct?

Few plurals feel as slippery as attorneys, and the reason is a spelling rule that people apply too broadly. The correct plural of attorney is attorneys, formed by keeping the y and adding -s. The misspelling attornies comes from a real rule, the one that turns baby into babies, applied to a word where it does not belong. That rule only works when a consonant sits before the y; attorney ends in a vowel (e) before the y, so the y stays and you just add -s. This makes attorneys one of those commonly confused words where the error comes not from ignorance of the rule but from over-applying it. This guide explains the vowel-versus-consonant test that decides every -y plural, shows why attorney takes -s rather than -ies, and gives you a one-glance check so you never write attornies again.

Which One Is Correct?

Attorneys is correct. Attornies is not. There is no context, formal or casual, American or British, in which attornies is the accepted plural; it is simply a misspelling, and every dictionary lists only attorneys.

The mistake is understandable because it grows out of a rule people genuinely know. Somewhere in school, everyone learns that baby becomes babies and city becomes cities, and it is tempting to assume every -y word behaves that way. But the rule has a condition attached, and attorney does not meet it. Once you check the letter directly before the y, the right plural becomes obvious.

So whenever you are about to pluralize attorney, look at the y and the letter in front of it. That single check, is it a vowel or a consonant before the y, decides the whole thing, and for attorney the answer sends you straight to attorneys.

The Rule Behind the Plural

English has two ways to pluralize a noun ending in -y, and which one you use depends entirely on the letter immediately before the y.

Consonant + y → change y to ies. When a consonant sits right before the y, you drop the y and add -ies. Baby (b before y) → babies; city (t before y) → cities; company → companies; story → stories. This is the rule that produces the tempting but wrong attornies.

Vowel + y → keep y and add s. When a vowel sits right before the y, you leave the y alone and simply add -s. Key (e before y) → keys; day (a before y) → days; boy (o before y) → boys; valley → valleys; journey → journeys. Attorney ends in -ey, an e before the y, so it belongs firmly in this group: attorneys.

The decisive fact is that attorney ends in a vowel plus y, not a consonant plus y. That is why the y-to-ies transformation never applies. The same logic governs its close relative journey → journeys and money → moneys. Once you see attorney as a member of the -ey family, the plural writes itself: keep the ey, add s, done. Related -y spelling choices, such as keeping the y in studying vs studing, reward the same habit of checking the letter before the y.

Why People Mix Them Up

If the rule is that clean, why does attornies appear so often? A few forces work against the correct form.

The first is overgeneralizing the babies rule. The y-to-ies pattern is one of the first plural rules children learn, and it is drilled hard, so the hand reaches for -ies automatically whenever it sees a word ending in -y. Writers forget that the rule fires only after a consonant.

The second is pronunciation blur. Said aloud, the ending of attorneys can sound close to the "-eez" of babies or cities, and the ear does not reliably distinguish the two. Sound is a poor guide here; the spelling depends on the vowel you see, not the vowel you hear. This is a common trap in -y plurals generally, as with flys vs flies, where fly really does take -ies because a consonant precedes the y.

A third factor is the length and formality of the word. Attorney is a formal, legal-sounding noun, and writers second-guess its plural more than they would an everyday word like key. The cure is to strip away the formality and test attorney exactly as you would test key or day: vowel before the y, so add -s. Nothing about the word being legal changes the mechanics of the plural, just as nothing about a long word changes a spelling rule in cases like occurring vs occuring.

Examples in Sentences

Seeing the correct plural in context makes the rule stick.

Correct (attorneys):

• The firm hired three new attorneys this spring.
• Both attorneys filed their motions before the deadline.
• District attorneys across the state issued a joint statement.

Incorrect (attornies):

• The firm hired three new attornies this spring. → attorneys
• Both attornies filed their motions before the deadline. → attorneys
• District attornies across the state issued a joint statement. → attorneys

In each correction the move is identical: restore the e before the y and add a plain -s. Note that the possessive plural follows from the same base, "the attorneys' fees," built on attorneys, never on attornies. Get the plural right and the possessive falls into place.

Attornies vs Attorneys: Side by Side

The table lays the two forms against each other.

Aspect	Attornies	Attorneys
Correct?	no, always a misspelling	yes
Letter before y	treated as if consonant	vowel (e)
Rule applied	consonant + y → ies (wrong here)	vowel + y → add s
Base word	attorney	attorney
Same pattern as	babies, cities (wrong analogy)	keys, days, journeys
In dictionaries	no	yes

The decisive row is "letter before y": attorney has a vowel (e) before the y, which means you add -s and keep the y. Attornies treats that e as if it were a consonant, applies the wrong rule, and lands on a form no dictionary recognizes.

How to Remember

The fastest memory hook is a two-letter glance: look at the pair of letters before the final y. In attorney that pair ends in e, a vowel, and a vowel before y always means "keep the y, add -s." So attorney → attorneys, no ies in sight.

A second cue borrows a word you never misspell: key → keys. Both key and attorney end in -ey, and both simply add -s. If keys looks right to you, and it does, then attorneys is built the same way; just put attorn- in front of -eys. Lock attorney to key and the plural is automatic. Whenever the -ies impulse strikes, ask "is there a vowel before the y?" For attorney the answer is yes, and yes means attorneys.

Related Spelling Mixups

Attornies vs attorneys belongs to a family of -y plural confusions. Two related cases sharpen the contrast. The first is flys vs flies, the flip side of this problem: fly ends in a consonant plus y, so it really does take -ies, giving flies, and flys is the error. The second is heros vs heroes, a different plural trap where the fix is adding -es to a word ending in -o, producing heroes. Each pair, like attornies vs attorneys, turns on knowing exactly which ending triggers which change. For another plural puzzle, see how saw vs seen sorts out an irregular verb form rather than a noun. And for a verb-versus-noun mix-up inside the same -y family, compare apologizes vs apologies, where the verb keeps its -izes and the plural noun takes -ies.

Conclusion

Attorneys is the correct plural, and attornies is always wrong. The error is not a failure to know a rule but a failure to check its condition. English changes y to ies only when a consonant comes before the y, as in baby → babies and city → cities. When a vowel comes before the y, the y stays and you simply add -s, as in key → keys and day → days. Attorney ends in -ey, a vowel before the y, so it joins that second group: attorneys. Attornies borrows the babies rule and applies it where it does not belong, producing a form no dictionary accepts. To keep it straight, glance at the letter before the y, tie attorney to the familiar key and keys, and add -s without a second thought. Do that and attorneys will come out right every time. For more pairs where one rule settles a stubborn spelling, browse the full collection of commonly confused words.