Plurallizing 3-letter words

Roughly 20% of the 4-letter words can be constructed by adding S to a 3-letter word. There's some rules that make remembering these easier.

The rule has three cases.

  1. If the word ends in Y, then it can take an S iff its second letter is a vowel.
  2. If the word ends in H, J, S, X, or Z, the word cannot take an S.
  3. If the word ends in anything else, it does take an S.

Exceptions to Case 1

The following words ending in Y cannot take an S.

FEY
GEY
HEY

The following end in YS and are four-letter words.

ABYS
DRYS
WHYS

Exceptions to Case 2

The following 29 are four-letter words.

AAHS
BASS
BOSS
BUSS
COSS
DAHS
DISS
DOSS
EDHS
ETHS
FEHS
HAHS
HEHS
HISS
ICHS
KOSS
LASS
MASS
MISS
MOSS
MUSS
OOHS
PASS
PEHS
PISS
PUSS
TASS
UGHS
WISS

Exceptions to Case 3

The following 90 3-letter words cannot take an S.

AFF
AFT
AGO
AHA
APT
ATT
AVA
AWA
AZO
BRR
COR
CUM
DID
DUI
EAU
ELF
ERE
FAR
FER
FEW
FIE
FOR
FOU
FRO
GAN
GOR
GOT
HAD
HAO
HEP
HIC
HID
HIM
HMM
HUP
ICK
IFF
JEU
JUN
KOI
LED
LEU
LEV
MED
MEN
MET
MIM
NAE
NAM
NAW
NEE
NOO
NOR
NOT
OFT
OHO
ORA
OVA
OXO
PER
PHT
PIU
QUA
RAN
SAD
SAE
SAT
SAU
SEN
SHA
SYN
TAE
THE
THO
TOO
UMM
UPO
VEG
VIA
WHA
WHO
WUD
YAR
YEP
YET
YOM
YON
YOU
YUM
ZOA