Singular & Plurals
Concept: Revisit: One vs Many
Definition:
A) Singular Noun:
- A singular noun talks about only one person, place, animal, or thing.
- Examples of singular nouns show only one person – doctor, carpenter, place – park, lake, animal – frog, monkey, and object – camera, pencil.
B) Plural Noun:
- A plural noun talks about more than one person, animal, place, or thing.
- Above mentioned pictures are examples of plural nouns because they denote more than one person – girls, farmers, places – hospitals, schools, animal – snakes, cats, and thing – shoes, cars.
Examples:
Nouns | Singular Nouns | Plural Nouns | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Person | ||||
Place | ||||
Animals | ||||
Things |
Rules to Make Singular Nouns into a Plural noun
a) Add ‘s’ with the singular noun to make it into a plural noun.
Examples:
The singular form is ‘dog’.
The plural form is ‘dogs’.
To make a singular noun into a plural noun, we added ‘-s’ with the singular noun.
b) Add ‘-es’ if a singular noun ends with ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘x’, or ‘z’.
These nouns are known as irregular nouns.
Examples:
Singular Nouns | Plural Nouns |
---|---|
i) bus | buses |
ii) dress | dresses |
iii) beach | beaches |
iv) brush | brushes |
v) fox | foxes |
vi)witch | witches |
c) If a singular noun ends with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), add a ‘s’ with the singular noun to make it into a plural noun.
Examples:
d) When a singular noun ends with a consonant and ‘y’, change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘-es’ with the singular noun to make into a plural noun.
Examples:
Common mistakes:
There are a few irregular nouns that don’t add letters at the end of a singular noun to make it a plural one. These plural nouns change the words themselves. Don’t add ‘-s’ or ‘-es’ with the singular nouns to turn them into plural nouns.
Examples:
I have two children.
I have two childs.
Singular Nouns | Plural Nouns |
---|---|
i) Man | Men |
ii) Woman | Women |
iii) Child | Children |
iv) Goose | Geese |
v) Foot | Feet |
vi)Ox | Oxen |
vii)Mouse | Mice |