Singular and Plural Nouns For beginners

Learn how to form and use singular and plural nouns, like 'cat' and 'cats'. Easy explanations, clear examples, and practice exercises included.

grammatical number nouns plural nouns singular nouns

"Singular and Plural Nouns" in English Grammar

What Are Singular and Plural Nouns?

A singular noun refers to just one person, place, thing, or idea. But a plural noun refers to more than one person, place, thing, or idea.

Formation

Most plural nouns are formed by adding '-s' to the end of a singular noun. For example:

Singular Nouns	Plural Nouns
cat	cats
boy	boys
cup	cups
pencil	pencils
desk	desks
apple	apples

Spelling

If a singular noun ends in s, x, z, ch, or sh, the plural form is created by adding '-es'.

Singular Nouns	Plural Nouns
church	churches
boss	bosses
dish	dishes
box	boxes
quiz	quizzes

If a singular noun ends in a consonant followed by '-y', the plural form is created by replacing the '-y' with '-ies'. For example:

Singular Nouns	Plural Nouns
city	cities
baby	babies

Irregular Nouns

Some nouns have irregular plural forms. For example:

Singular Nouns	Plural Nouns
man	men
woman	women
child	children
tooth	teeth
foot	feet
fish	fish
sheep	sheep

Verb Agreement

When using nouns as subjects, it's important to use singular verbs with singular nouns and plural verbs with plural nouns. Pay attention to the examples:

Example

Your eyes are blue.

A glass is on the table.

Quiz:

Which of the following is the correct plural form of "box"?

boxs

boxes

boxies

boxis

Which of these nouns forms its plural by taking "-ies" at the end?

cat

city

play

pencil

Select all the words that have irregular plural forms. (choose four)

woman

boss

quizz

foot

tooth

dish

sheep

cup

church

cat

Fill in the blanks with the correct plural form of the word given in parentheses.

She has two

on her desk. (pen)

There are many

in the room. (box)

A lot of

are swimming in the lake. (fish)

Our

are very kind. (teacher)

She gave the

to her sister. (baby)

Fill in the table with the correct single or plural forms of the nouns:

single noun	plural noun
	buses
	men
flower
lady
	dresses
fish

Comments

(2)

Mar 2024

The school organized a trip to a farm for the children. There were a lot of animals like herds of sheep, goats and cattle. My sister told me that she shrieked when a goat suddenly ate the grass from her hands.

Lia safitri

Nov 2023

Hallo i am lia

What Are Singular and Plural Nouns?
- Spelling
Irregular Nouns
Verb Agreement
Quiz
?

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Nouns

Nouns are among the first lessons when studying a new language. In other words, we have to be able to name things first, then make sentences with them.

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Nouns can be categorized based on what they refer to. Common nouns refer to general items, while proper nouns specify unique entities.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

It is important to know if a noun is countable or not. It can help form correct sentences using articles and verbs that agree with the noun.

Plural-Only Nouns

Here, we will discuss some nouns in the English language that are always used as a plural noun, i.e. they don't have a singular form.

Collective Nouns

If we want to represent certain individual nouns as one entity we can make use of collective nouns. In this lesson, you'll learn about their structure and uses.

Abstract and Concrete Nouns

Based on what we can or cannot perceive with our five senses, we can categorize nouns into two groups: abstract and common nouns. Start learning!

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