Nouns: plural and singular

 

English nouns can be countable (we can say ‘two balls’) or uncountable (we can’t say ‘two milks’).

 

Countable nouns can have singular (street, book, dog) or plural (streets, books, dogs) forms.

 

Uncountable nouns don’t have plural forms.

• money
• water
• music
• information

 

We usually make plural nouns by adding ‘-s’ to the base form:

• One book → Polly has two books.
• One pencil → The teacher gave me three pencils.
• A cat → We saw two cats outside the house.
• A question  → Do you have any questions?

 

 But there are also some specific spelling rules for plurals.

1. For nouns ending in ‘-s’, ‘-ss’, ‘-sh’, ‘-ch’, ‘-x’ and ‘-z’, add ‘-es’:

• A bus → All the buses stop here.
• A glass → I had two glasses of wine last night.
• A brush → I prefer soft brushes for my hair.
• A peach → Sandy bought fresh peaches at the market.
• A box → There were boxes with presents under the Christmas tree.
• A quiz → I like taking fun quizzes*.

Note: When a word ends in a singular ‘z’, the ‘z’ is doubled and ‘-es’ is added.

 

2. For nouns ending in a consonant + ‘-y’, change the ‘-y’ to ‘-ies’:

• A city → I visited many cities.
• A story → My grandmother knows many interesting stories.
• A country → How many countries are there in the world?
• A family → Ten families moved into new houses last month.

 

3. For most nouns ending in ‘-o‘, add ‘-s‘ (kilos, photos, radios, etc). But there are several common nouns that need ‘-es‘ instead:

• Potato → Jane bought two kilos of potatoes at the market.
• Tomato → Tomatoes are good in any salad.
• Hero → Batman and Superman are my two favorite superheroes.
• Echo → Loud echoes could be heard in the woods.

 

4. For nouns ending in ‘-f‘ or ‘-fe‘, change ‘-f / -fe‘ to ‘-ves‘:

• A leaf → Many trees lose their leaves in Autumn.
• A wife → In some countries a man can have several wives.
• A knife → A good chef always takes care of his knives.

 

Some nouns in English have irregular plural forms. The most common are:
man – men woman – women child – children person – people foot  – feet	tooth – teeth fish – fish sheep – sheep mouse – mice penny – pence