Nouns: Singular and Plural

Nouns: singular and plural
Most countable nouns have both a singular and plural form, showing the difference between
“one” and”more than one”.
Regular plural
The regular way of changing a noun from singular to plural is to add –s at the end.
Dog-dogs ,chair –chairs, difference – differences
For nouns ending in –y, you drop the –y and add –ies to form the plural.
Dictionary – dictionaries , opportunity – opportunities
For nouns ending in –o you add –es to form the plural
Tomato- tomatoes,potato-potatoes
IRREGULAR PLURALS
There are also severa irregular ways of forming a plural
1-winth seven nouns you change the vowel. They are:
Man-men
Foot-feet
Mouse-mice
Louse-lice
Woman-women
Goose-geese
Tooth-teeth
2-With a few nouns you change the final –g to –v before adding the –s ending they include:
Knife-knive
Wife-wives
Leaf-leaves
Half-halves
Some nouns in this group have a regular plural as well: scarfs and scarves , hoofs and hooves
Both possibilities are correct.
3.With there nouns you add –en.they are:
Ox-oxen,child-children,brother-brethren(only in the religious sense)
4.A few nouns which have been borrowed from foreigns languages have an irregular plural.
They include:
Stimulus-stimuli,crisis-crises,criterion-criteria,phenomenon-phenomena
Often the nouns have two plurals:they have developed a regular plural but have also kept their
original irregular one. In these cases, the regular form is more informal and popular,the
irregular form certain formulas for success.
We have to learn all the relevant chemical formulae.
5. A few nouns have no plural ending but you can still use them in a singular or plural way:
They include the names of some animals (such as sheep, deer cod), certain nationalities ( such
as Japanese, Swiss) some nouns expressing quantity (such as ton p(=”pence)),”and a few
others (such as aircraft , crossroads, kennels ,offspring)
The sheep wars making a noise the sheep were making a noise
Plurals for compound nouns
Compound nouns combine two or more words into a single unit. You usually make them plural
by adding-s at the end of the word: can-openers, grown-ups but in few cases, the first part of
the compound takes the –s ending, especially when the compound contains a preposition
Runner-up-runners -up
Passer- by-passers-by
Man-of-war-men-of-war
Sometimes, a regular
Plural form has developed, which is slowly replacing the irregular one.
Spoonful’s (also spoonsful)
Mother-in-laws (also mothers – in-law)
Nouns which are only singular
Several nouns are used only in the singular. There are three main types:
1. Proper names – names of particular people, places, times ,occasions, events ,and so on.
John, Robinson, Christmas ,Tuesday,

You can use these in the plural only if you think of them in a “countable” way .this is especially
common with proper nouns expressing time
On Tuesday I go swimming.
Are the Robinsons coming to the party?
We stayed with Mary three Christmases ago.
2. Most uncountable nouns, such as music and advice , are only singular.
3 .A group of nouns which you use in the singular, even though the end in –s these include
The names of certain subjects, diseases, and, games.
Physics, linguistics, mumps, measles, billiards
A common mistake is to think of the as plural and use them with a plural verb or form a
singular noun from them.
Linguistic is fascinating. Not linguistics are fascinating
Billiards is game .not billiards is a game. Not billiards are game
Poor mike´s got measles. Not poor mike´s got measles
NOUNS WHICH ARE ONLY PLURAL
Several nouns are used only in the plural .There are three main types:
1. A few nouns are related to things consisting of two joined parts, they include jeans,
binocular, trousers, pliers, scissors .To talk about these in the singular, and you use pair of.
Your jeans are in the washout your jeans are in the wash.
Indeed to buy another pair of jeans . NOT I need to buy other jeans.
.NOT Indeed to buy another jean.
2. A few nouns ending in –s are used only in the plural. They include congratulations, outskirts
,remains ,stairs ,thanks.
The stairs were steep and winding .NOT The stairs was steep and winding.
.NOT The stair was steep and winding.
These are not uncountable nouns, because they are used with how many not how much.
How many stairs are there? Not how much stairs are there?
3.Afew nouns express the idea of groups of people or animals. They include people ,folk
,police ,cattle, poultry ,livestock.
The police are outside .NOT The police is outside
.NOT The polices are outside.

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John, Robinson, Christmas ,Tuesday,

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