Nouns - Singular and Plural - learn how to make plurals of nouns.

Plural nouns.

There are several regular ways to make plurals there are many irregular plural forms. Some plurals are treated as a single item.

Regular nouns - plural.

There are several regular ways to make plurals and they depend on the ending of the word.

Most nouns have one particular form.

Nouns ending in s, x, z, ch and sh have a particular form.

Nouns

ending in y have a particular form as do nouns ending in f or fe.

Most nouns are made plural just by adding a letter s.

Some examples; one cat, two cats, one dog, three dogs, one boat, many boats, one house, several houses, one cup, two cups.

Nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, sh and ss are made plural by adding es and this is purely done to make pronunciation easier.

So we say one bus, two buses, no not buss.

No, it wouldn’t work.

One box, three

boxes, one waltz, two waltzes.

Although it should be noted that quiz in the plural form of quizzes has two Zs.

One beach, many beaches.

And also please note that if the ch is a hard sound, as in stomach, we just add an s to make stomachs and not stomaches.

One bush, several bushes, one boss, too many bosses.

Nouns ending in a y have two possible ways.

If the letter before the y is a vowel, we simply add an s as in one key, two keys, one boy, three boys, otherwise we replace the y with ies.

One berry, two berries, one fly, many flies.

And nouns ending in f or fe also have two options.

If there are two vowels before the last f, we usually add an s.

So one chief, two chiefs, but there again one thief, two thieves, or one roof, three roofs.

Otherwise, we usually replace the f or fe with ves, as in one knife, two knives, but again one safe, two safes, or one half, several halves.

Unfortunately, there is no firm rule.

And you just need to know which one is to be used.

And just remember it and you’ll be fine.

Now look at some irregular plural forms for nouns.

There are many irregular plural forms. Some have different plural forms, some have the same plural form as the singular.

We look at those that have different forms. One man, two men, or one woman, three women, one child, four children, one mouse, many mice, one goose, several geese, one foot, three feet, one tooth, several teeth.

These

are just some examples.

There are many many more that are irregular in the plural form Some have the same plural as a singular.

One sheep, two sheep, one fish, three fish, one aircraft, many aircraft, one deer, several deer, one bison, two bison.

And again, these are just examples - there are many more.

Lastly, we come on to verb agreement.

Normally, a plural will have a plural verb form as in the peasants are revolting, many roads lead to Rome, your trousers are too tight.

However, some plurals are used in a singular verb form.

The news is on at 9 o’clock in the evening, darts is a popular pub game in England and mathematics is not always hard.

these singular forms are not all of them.

There are more and sadly there is no hard and fast rule.

The exceptions that take the singular form - you just have to see them and learn them.