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Grammar

Singular and Plural Nouns

Initially we talked about noun and become to know about kinds of nouns. In this article we will elaborate singular and plural nouns. How can we change singular nouns into plural nouns? Indeed in speaking its easy to formulate a singular noun into plural but in written form there are certain rules to change singular nouns into plural. If you don’t know about kinds of nouns we recommend you to study about by clicking here. Then you can easily comprehend singular and plural nouns.

Countable nouns:
Singular and plural nouns can be countable nouns, the nouns which can be counted. These nouns can be used in both the singular and plural forms, when used as plural forms they can be counted.

Singular and Plural Nouns
Singular and Plural Nouns

Singular and Plural Nouns:

A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or idea, while a plural nouns names more than one person, place, thing or idea.

How to Change Singular noun into plural?

In order to change a singular noun into plural form in English, you mostly add “s” but a lot of things don’t follow this rule, there are a few rules to remember when it comes to turning a singular noun into a plural noun.
1. Most of singular nouns need “s” at the end to become plural.

  • Cup = cups
  • Cat = cats
  • Dog = dogs

2. When a singular noun ends in ‘s, ss, sh, ch, x, or z’ add ‘es’ to make it plural.

  • Bus = buses
  • Glass = glasses
  • Bush = bushes
  • watch = watches
  • Box = boxes
  • Buzz = buzzes

3. If a singular noun ends in vowel + y add ‘s’ to make it plural.

  • Boy = boys
  • Toy = toys

4. If a singular noun ends in consonant + y drop ‘y’ and add ‘ies’ to make it plural.

  • Sky = skies
  • Baby = babies

5. Singular nouns ending in ‘o’ take ‘es’ but some singular nouns get ‘os’ to make them plural, study the examples below:

  • ‘Es’
  • Echo = echoes
  • Hero = heroes
  • Potato = potatoes
  • Tomato = tomatoes
  • Veto = vetoes
  • ‘s’
  • Auto = autos
  • Kangaroo = kangaroos
  • Kilo = kilos
  • Photo = photos
  • Piano = pianos
  • Studio = studios
  • Tattoo = tattoos
  • Video = videos
  • Zoo = zoos

Some singular nouns ending in ‘o’ get either ‘s’ or ‘es’ for their plural forms.
(Buffalo, cargo, halo, mosquito, motto, no, tornado, volcano and zero).

6. Singular nouns ending in ‘f or fe’ change ‘f or fe’ to ‘v’ and add ‘-es’ for their plural forms.

  • Wife = wives
  • Knife = knives
  • Life = lives
  • Self = selves
  • Leaf = leaves

7. Singular nouns ending in ‘-on’ become ‘-a’ in their plural forms.

  • Criterion = criteria
  • Phenomenon = phenomena

8. Singular nouns ending in ‘is’ become ‘es’ in their plural forms.

  • Axis = axes
  • Basis = bases
  • Crisis = crises
  • Emphasis = emphases

9. There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms, study the examples below.

  • Fish = fishes/ fish
  • Sheep = sheep
  • Barracks = barracks
  • Foot = feet
  • Tooth = teeth
  • Goose = goose/ gooses
  • Child = children
  • Man = men
  • Woman = women
  • Person = persons/ people
  • Mouse = mouses

10. Some nouns never take ‘s’ for their plural forms but are always considered to be singular.

  • Luggage, baggage, furniture, information.

11. There are nouns appear to be plural but take a singular verb.

  • News, economics, mathematics, statistics and gymnastics.
  • My mathematics is better than yours.

Pronunciation of Final -S

The ending ‘s’ is pronounced /s/ after a voiceless sound, it is pronounced /z/ after a voiced sound and is pronounced /iz/ after a sibilant sound:

  • Voiceless: caps /ps/ — cat /ts/ — book /ks/
  • Voiced: crabs /bz/ — words /dz/ — gloves /vz/,
  • Sibilant: buses /iz /– bridges /iz / — wishes /shiz /.

The /s/ sound
If the last consonant of the singular noun is voiceless, then the ‘S’ is pronounced as /s/. Be careful not to create an extra syllable. Remember these nouns end in “P/t/k/f/th” sounds.

  • Cup = cups
  • Student = students
  • Drink = drinks
  • Graph = graphs
  • Month = months

The /iz/ sound
Singular nouns ending in ‘sh-ch -ss and x’ we add ‘es’ for their plural it is pronounced as ‘iz’.

  • Dish = dishes /iz/
  • Church = churches /iz/
  • Class = classes /iz/
  • Box = boxes

The /z/ sound
If the last letter of the singular noun ends in a voiced consonant (or sound), then the ‘S’ is pronounced like a /z/.

  • Card = cards /dz/
  • Bag = bags /gz/
  • Fan = fans /nz/
  • Boy = boys /yz/
  • Cloth = clothes /thz/
  • Sea = seas //eaz/

 

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