LoginSingular and Plural Nouns
Dive deep into singular and plural nouns with detailed explanations. Examples include 'mouse' and 'mice', plus a quiz to test your knowledge.
What Do we Mean by Singular and Plural Nouns?
Nouns can be categorized into two groups based on whether they refer to a single entity or multiple entities: singular nouns and plural nouns.
Singular Nouns
Singular nouns are nouns that refer to one person, place, thing, or idea. They are used to talk about individual items rather than groups or collections. Examples of singular nouns include "book", "dog", "sun", "city", and "idea".
In English, singular nouns can be modified by both definite and indefinite articles and the choice between the indefinite articles "a" or "an" depends on their initial sound. Furthermore, singular nouns take singular verb forms. Take a look at some examples:
I love reading a good book before bed.
'Book' is a singular nouns and it is modified by the article 'a'.
The tree in my backyard is starting to bloom.
'Tree' is a singular noun and it takes a singular verb form
Plural Nouns
Plural nouns are used when referring to more than one person or thing in English, and there are rules for pluralizing nouns. The most basic rule is to add "-s" to the end of a singular noun. However, some nouns require spelling changes or have irregular plural forms.
Spelling Rules for Regular Nouns
In English, making a noun plural usually involves adding "-s" or "-es" to the end of the word.
Most nouns can be made plural by adding "-s" to the end of the word.
bird → birds
For singular nouns that end in "-s," "-ss," "-sh," "-ch," "-x," or "-z," add "-es" to the end of the word to make it plural.
bus → buses
For singular nouns that end in "-f" or "-fe," change the "-f" to "-v" and add "-es" to the end of the word to make it plural.
knife → knives
These are regular nouns too, but these kinds of nouns has a change in their dictations.
Not all nouns ending in "-f" or "-fe" follow this rule. some of them simply take "-s."
roof → roofs
If a singular noun ends in a consonant + -y, change the ending to "‑ies" to make the noun plural.
baby → babies
If the singular noun ends in a vowel + -y, simply add an "-s" to make it plural.
boy → boys
Some of the singular nouns that end in a consonant + ‑o, take "‑es" in the plural form.
tomato → tomatoes
Not all nouns that end in -o take -es at the end to become plural nouns.
radio → radios
piano → pianos
For singular nouns ending in "-s" or "-z," double the last letter before adding "-es" to make it plural.
gas → gasses
Plural Form of Loan Words
English has borrowed many words from other languages, such as Latin, Greek, and Germanic languages, and the pluralization rules for these words are often different from those in modern English. Therefore, it's important to learn the plural forms of such words separately.
If the singular noun ends in "‑us", the plural ending is frequently "‑i".
cactus → cacti
You can also say 'cactuses' in modern English language.
If the singular noun ends in "‑is", the plural ending is "‑es".
analysis → analyses
If the singular noun ends in "‑on", the plural ending is "‑a".
phenomenon → phenomena
Irregular Plural Forms
There are some nouns that do not follow any specific pluralization rules, and the only way to learn their plural forms is to memorize them or look them up in a dictionary.
child → children
man → men
woman → women
person → people
Remember that 'people' is countable and we should say 'people are...' not 'people is...'
tooth → teeth
foot → feet
mouse → mice
The best way to learn them is to check your dictionaries and memorize them.
Nouns with the Same Form for Singular and Plural
There are some plurals that can be confusing because they have the same form as their singular counterparts.
There is one fish. → (There are ten fish.)
The word 'fishes' is also used here, but it's not very common.
There is one sheep. → (There are ten sheep.)
The plural of 'sheep' is always 'sheep'. 'Sheep', however is not a collective noun; when speaking of more than one sheep, it is simply plural.
There is one deer at the park. → (There are five deer at the park.)
Nouns That Only Have Plural Forms
Certain nouns only exist in their plural form and do not have a singular form (i.e., they always end in "-s" or "-es"). One group of such nouns consists of those that come in pairs or consist of two parts. Here are some examples:
Pants
Shorts
Tweezers
Trousers
Headphones
Shoes
Jeans
Slippers
Glasses
Tip!
These nouns cannot be directly counted or used with numbers. In order to count them, you may phrases like 'pair of', 'set of' etc.
I have a new pair of shoes.
It means there are enough shoes for both feet.
This pair of headphones is amazing.
There are some other nouns that are not a pair but are always in plural form:
Savings
Stairs
Thanks
Greetings
Goods
Singular Nouns with Plural Forms
There are nouns that look like a plural noun but are treated as singular, these include:
Academic subjects and sciences: Mathematics, Physics, Economics
Diseases: Measles, Mumps, Diabetes
Sports and activities: Darts, Checkers, Gymnastics, Aerobics
Abstract concepts: News, Ethics, Politics
I skipped economics today, it's so borig.
Subjects
Mumps is a contagious disease that is caused by a virus
Diseases
The breaking news about the earthquake in Japan was shocking
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are words that refer to a group of people, animals, or things. Depending on whether the collective noun refers to the individual members within the group or the whole group as a single unit, it can be considered plural or singular, and accordingly takes either a plural or singular verb. Some of the common collective nouns include the following:
Audience
Crew
Herd
Team
Government
Pack
The audience are each screaming their favorite player's name.
when the members of the group act as individuals.
The audience is in shock.
when the members of the group are acting together as a unit.
The family were arguing at dinner.
The family is going on a vacation.
Verb Agreement
When using singular nouns, it is important to use singular verb forms. Using plural verbs with singular nouns, or vice versa, would be grammatically incorrect.
Students play football in the yard. (Not 'Students plays football in the yard.')
The apple is in the bowl. (Not 'The apple are in the bowl.')
Definite article 'the'
The definite article (the) can be used before both singular and plural nouns.
Demonstrative Determiners Agreement
It is important to use singular demonstrative determiners with singular nouns and plural demonstratives with plural nouns. Using plural demonstratives with singular nouns, or vice versa, would be considered incorrect.
Those books were put on the shelves. (Not 'That books were put on the shelves.')
This small dog was barking all night. (Not 'These small dog was barking all night.')
Possessive Determiners
In English, possessive determiners do not need to agree with the nouns they are modifying, they only agree with the number of possessor(s). It is grammatically acceptable to use plural nouns with singular possessive determiners, or vice versa.
My books are on the table.
Here, the possessor is the first person singular and the possessive determiner reflects this. It does not need to reflect the number of the possessed items (books).
Their mother is a kind woman.
Review
Nouns can be categorized into two groups based on their number.
Singular Nouns
Singular nouns refer to only one person, thing, place, animal, etc.
article (a) | article (an) | |
|---|---|---|
Singular nouns | nouns starting with a consonant sound | nouns starting with a vowel (a.e.i.o.u) sound |
Plural Nouns
Plural nouns refer to two or more people, things, places, animals, etc.
regular | irregular | unchanged | |
|---|---|---|---|
Plural nouns | simply add s / If the word ends in( x, ch, sh, ss, z )add es | the whole word changes / e.g., foot → feet | same form for singular and plural, e.g., fish → fish |
Quiz:
Choose all the nouns that have irregular plural forms. (Choose five.)
person
child
box
leaf
tooth
quiz
monkey
man
mouse
lamp
Complete the table by writing the correct plural form of each noun.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
lamp | |
city | |
criterion | |
fish | |
toy | |
fox |
Which of the following statements about irregular plural nouns is CORRECT?
All nouns ending in "-o" add "-es" to form their plural
To talk about the singular of nouns like "jeans" and "glasses," we can use "a jean" or "a glass"
Words like "mice" and "criteria" are singular nouns that should take singular verbs
The words "sheep" and "deer" keep the same form in both singular and plural
Match each noun in Column A with its correct category in Column B.
Which sentence demonstrates correct subject-verb agreement AND proper use of demonstrative determiners?
These child is playing in the park.
That students runs fast in competitions.
This book belongs on those shelves.
Those apples was fresh from the tree.
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