Singular & plural

 

In the English language, nouns are divided into singular and plural nouns based on their number.

Table of Contents

• Definition of a Plural Noun
• Changing a Singular Noun to a Plural Noun
  • Adding ‘s’
  • Adding ‘es’
  • Adding ‘ves’ for nouns ending with an ‘f’ or ‘fe’
  • Adding ‘oes’ to nouns ending with an ‘o’
  • Adding ‘ies’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a consonant
  • Adding ‘s’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a vowel
  • Changing ‘us’ to ‘i’
  • Changing ‘is’ to ‘es’
  • Changing ‘on’ to ‘a’
  • Nouns with a common singular and plural form
  • Irregular nouns
  • Plural form for hyphenated nouns and relationships
• Plural Noun Examples
• Test Your Knowledge

Definition of a Plural Noun

a noun can be classified as plural if it refers to or consists of more than one person, place, or object.

Changing a Singular Noun to a Plural Noun

A common noun can be made plural by adding an ‘s’, ‘es’, ‘ies’, ‘ves’; by changing ‘us’ to ‘i’, ‘is’ to ‘es’, ‘on’ to ‘a’ and so on. There are some common nouns that remain the same in the singular and plural forms. A few others do not fall under any other category of plural nouns. They are termed irregular nouns. These common nouns can be made plural by a change in the spelling or by the addition of a suffix to the root word.

Check out the following examples of plural nouns for a better understanding.

Examples:

• • Adding ‘s’
    • Dog – dogs
    • Pen – pens
    • Chair – chairs

• • Adding ‘es’
    • Box – boxes
    • Tax – taxes
    • Bus – buses

• • Adding ‘ves’ for nouns ending with an ‘f’ or ‘fe’
    • Wolf – wolves
    • Calf – calves
    • Knife – knives
    • Wife – wives

• • Adding ‘es’ to nouns ending with an ‘o’
    • Mango – mangoes
    • Potato – potatoes
    • Tomato – tomatoes
    • Mosquito – mosquitoes
    • Volcano – volcanoes

• • Adding ‘ies’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a consonant
    • City – cities
    • Strawberry – strawberries
    • Puppy – puppies

• • Adding ‘s’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a vowel
    • Ray – rays
    • Toy – toys
    • Boy – boys

• • Changing ‘us’ to ‘i’
    • Alumnus – alumni
    • Syllabus – syllabi
    • Cactus – cacti
    • Fungus – fungi
    • Nucleus – nuclei

• • Changing ‘is’ to ‘es’
    • Crisis – crises
    • Analysis – analyses
    • Diagnosis – diagnoses
    • Thesis – theses

• • Changing ‘on’ to ‘a’
    • Criterion – criteria
    • Phenomenon – phenomena

• • Nouns with a common singular and plural form
    • News – news
    • Scissors – scissors
    • Furniture – furniture
    • Deer – deer
    • Fish – fish
    • Police – police
    • Sheep – sheep

• • Irregular nouns
    • Man – men
    • Woman – women
    • Ox – oxen
    • Goose – geese
    • Child – children
    • Tooth – teeth
    • Foot – feet
    • Mouse – mice

• • Plural form for hyphenated nouns and relationships
    • Mother-in-law – Mothers-in-law
    • Father-in-law – Fathers-in-law
    • Brother-in-law – Brothers-in-law
    • Daughter-in-law – Daughters-in-law
    • Son-in-law – Sons-in-law
    • Grandmother – grandmothers
    • Grandfather – grandfathers
    • Grandson – grandsons
    • Granddaughter – granddaughters
    • Cousin – cousins
    • Brother – brothers
    • Sister – sisters
    • Uncle – uncles
    • Aunty – Aunties
    • Aunt – Aunts

 Plural Noun Examples

• a child – children
• a fox – foxes
• a loaf – loaves
• a ship – ships
• a school – schools
• a door – doors
• a baby – babies

Test Your Knowledge

Change the bold nouns in the following sentences into the plural form and use the appropriate form of the verb:

1. That boy plays the piano.
2. I bought an orange.
3. The teacher will be here in a few minutes.
4. The scientist has been working on theexperiment for five months now.
5. Tony bought a present .
6. The king was playing chess.
7. The monkey was climbing trees.
8. Sajah had an apple for breakfast.
9. Dina picked up a flower for her mom.
10. Tina likes having fruit for dinner.

Check your answers here:

1. Those boyls play the piano.
2. I bought some oranges.
3. The teachers will be here in a few minutes.
4. The scientists have been working on the experiment for five minutes now.
5. Tony brought presents.
6. The kingss were playing chess.
7. The monkeys were climbing trees.
8. Sadie had apples for breakfast.
9. Dina picked up flowers for her mom.
10. Tina likes having fruits for dinner.