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Learn English English Nouns and Plurals

A noun refers to a person, place, or thing.

doctor Robert
church Moscow
assistance Islam

A noun can be singular or plural. A singular noun is one of something and a plural noun is two or more.

General Rule: In English, the plural form of most nouns is formed by adding -s to the singular form.

book books
idea ideas
toy toys
village villages
choice choices

 
Exceptions:

Nouns ending in -s, -x, -sh, or -ch form the plural by adding -es.

lens lenses
kiss kisses
tax taxes
dish dishes
church churches

Note: When the plural requires -es another syllable is added to the noun. For example, the word book and its plural books each have one syllable. But the word dish has one syllable while the plural dishes has two syllables.

 
Singular nouns ending in -y preceded by a consonant change the -y to -i and adding -es.

city cities
fly flies
itinerary itineraries

Note that nouns ending in -y preceded by a vowel form the plural by adding -s, like the general rule.


Singular nouns ending in -o preceded by a consonant generally form the plural by adding -es.

hero heroes
potato potatoes
zero zeroes

Note: In this case, the number of syllables doesn't change.

Some exceptions:

halo halos
kilo kilos
piano pianos
taco tacos


Singular nouns ending in -f or -fe generally form the plural by changing the -f to -v and adding -s or -es.

leaf leaves
thief thieves
knife knives
wife wives


Nouns that have -oo often become -ee in the plural.

tooth teeth
foot feet
goose geese


Nouns that end in -us become plural by changing to -i.

cactus cacti
radius radii
focus foci


Finally, here are three important irregular plurals.

child children
woman women
man men

 

Quiz - Nouns and Plurals

Definite Article     Indefinite Article

Learn English

 


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