Singular and Plural Nouns

 

The Noun has singular and plural forms. Nouns in singular form use indefinite article a/an. It means we can count them.

a train, two trains        an elephant, two elephants

a tree, three trees       an eagle; five eagles

To make plural form of most nouns, a final -s must be added. These are regular nouns.

a cup – cups

a hat—hats

If a noun ends with a consonant y, make plural by changing y to i+ and adding + es.

baby – babi + es = babies

city: citi + es = cities

But: boy + s = boys

key + s = keys

turkey + s = turkeys

toy + s = toys

If a noun ends with a consonant f + silent e, in plural form, change f to v + add + es.

wife: wiv + es = wives

wolf: wolv + es = wolves

knife: kniv + es = knives

But: chiefs

       handkerchief – handkerchiefs

       roof – roofs

       safe – safes

The word wharf has two plural forms: wharfs and wharves

The Nouns with final suffixes s, ss, sh, ch, x, and z make plural

form by adding –es      inch – inches              box – boxes

If the end of the noun is –o, add –es to make it plural: 

potato + es = potatoes

tomato + es = tomatoes

cargo + es = cargoes

hero + es = heroes

But:  photos

        piano – pianos

Other nouns take plural forms in different ways.

These nouns are irregular.

Singular                     Plural

a child                      children

a foot                        feet

a man                       men

a woman                  women

a tooth                     teeth

a sheep                    sheep

a deer                      deer

a fish                       fish

an ox                      0xen

a goose                   geese

a person                  people

a life                       lives

a leaf                      leaves

a mouse                mice

Some nouns with Greek and Latin origin form plural form by adding s/es, others by another way

Singular              Plural

analysis              analyses

basis                  bases

matrix                matrices (xes)

datum                data

phenomenon       phenomena

medium             media

stratum              strata

fungus               fungi

bacterium           bacteria

 Fish and sheep are the nouns that form singular and plural by the same way:

A sheep is under the tree.

There are a lot of sheep in this farm.

This fish is golden. 

He caught five fish.

The nouns dozen and score have the same forms for singular and plural when they are preceded by numerals:

two dozen of rooms (a dozen is equal to 24)

three score years ago (a score is equal to 20)

But when dozen and score are used without numerals, they form plural by adding the final –s:

Pack the newspapers by  the dozen, please.

Scores of students were there.

The Nouns gate, sledge, and watch have both singular and plural forms:

Singular              Plural

a gate,    two gates

a sledge, some sledges

one watch, three watches

 

 

 

Nouns in Singular and Plural form

Count and non count Nouns

What is a Noun? How to use it?

Noun exercises