NOUNS: SINGULAR AND PLURAL

LEARN NOUNS: SINGULAR AND PLURAL | LEARN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Read the following sentences:

Please give me my book.

Please give me my books.

In the first sentence, the noun book stands for only one thing. We say that book is in the singular number.

The nouns book, pen, chair, cow, tree are in singular number.

In the second sentence, the noun books stands for more than one thing. We say the books is in the plural number.

The nouns books, pens, chairs, cows, trees are in plural number.

A noun standing for one person, animal, place or thing is said to be in the singular number.

A noun standing for more than one person, animal, place or thing is said to be in  plural number.

RULES FOR FORMING PLURALS:

There are many rules to change singular nouns to plural.

Let’s have a look at some of these rules:

    1.     To form plurals of most nouns, we only add –s to the singular.

Singular                                            Plural

   ball                                                   balls

   bird                                                   birds

   book                                                  books

   boy                                                    boys

   cow                                                   cows

   eye                                                    eyes

   horse                                                 horses

   house                                                houses

   kite                                                    kites

   lamp                                                  lamps

   table                                                  tables

   tree                                                    trees

   window                                         windows    

   year                                                   years

    2.     Nouns that end with s, ss, sh, ch and x (that end in a hissing sound) form their plural by adding –es to the singular.

                              Singular                                            Plural

                               bus                                                    buses

                               gas                                                    gases

                               class                                                 classes

                               glass                                                 glasses

                               brush                                                brushes

                               dish                                                  dishes         

                               bench                                               benches

                               match                                               matches

                               box                                                   boxes

                               fox                                                    foxeS

    3.     Some nouns that end in o form their plural by adding –es to the singular.

Singular                                              Plural

buffalo                                                buffaloes

hero                                                    heroes

mosquito                                            mosquitoes

potato                                                 potatoes

tomato                                                tomatoes

      ( Exception- photo – photos)

    4.    Nouns that end in –f or –fe generally form their plural by changing the f and fe to ves.

       

    Singular                                             Plural

 knife                                                  knives
leaf                                                    leaves

loaf                                                    loaves

 thief                                                   thieves

wife                                                   wives

 wolf                                                   wolves

( Exception- roof – roofs )

    5.     Some nouns ending in –y form their plural by changing the y to ies.

Singular                                            Plural

army                                                  armies

baby                                                  babies

country                                              countries

diary                                                  diaries

fly                                                      flies

story                                                  stories

·   But if the final y comes just after a vowel, the plural is formed by simply adding –s to the singular.

Singular                                            Plural

boy                                                    boys

day                                                    days

monkey                                             monkeys

toy                                                     toys

   6.     Some nouns do not follow any of the rules given. So we need to keep in mind their singular and plural.

 Singular                                            Plural  
man                                                    men
woman                                              women

child                                                children

ox                                                     oxen

foot                                                     feet 

 fish                                                     fish
       (fishes, when different kinds are involved)
tooth                                                 teeth

goose                                                geese

 mouse                                               mice 

   sheep                                                 sheep

 deer                                                   deer