Chapter 13 nouns the formation of plurals

CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 13 NOUNS THE FORMATION OF PLURALS A noun is a word used as the name of a person or a thing In the following examples, the nouns are underlined He opened the parcel She is a student[.]

CHAPTER 13 NOUNS: THE FORMATION OF PLURALS

A noun is a word used as the name of a person or a thing In the following examples, the nouns

are underlined

He opened the parcel

She is a student

The weather is warm

A cat is sitting on the steps

1 Proper nouns Names of individual persons or things are referred to as proper nouns In English, proper nouns

must begin with a capital letter The underlined words in the following sentences are proper nouns

e.g The capital of England is London

My friend, George, is an American

2 Countable nouns

Countable nouns are nouns which can form a plural, and which can be preceded by a, an, or a

number In the following examples, the countable nouns are underlined

e.g A bus is coming

You may need an umbrella

Here are two books

Twenty students are present

3 The formation of plurals

In general, when a countable noun refers to two or more things, it must be put into the plural In

English, the plural of most countable nouns is formed by adding s For example:

It has already been explained that a verb must agree with its subject When the subject of a verb

is a singular noun, the verb must be in the third person singular The third person singular is the

form of the verb used with the personal pronouns he, she, and it.

When the subject of a verb is a plural noun, the verb must be in the third person plural The third

person plural is the form of the verb used with the personal pronoun they In the following

examples, the verbs are printed in bold type and their subjects are underlined

Singular Subject: The book is interesting.

Plural Subject: The books are interesting.

Singular Subject: A duck was flying overhead.

Plural Subject: Two ducks were flying overhead.

Singular Subject: One student lives here.

Plural Subject: Three students live here.

a Nouns ending in ch, s, sh, x or z

For nouns ending in ch, s, sh, x or z, the plural is formed by adding es The reason for this is that these words would be difficult to pronounce if only s were added The ending es is pronounced

as a separate syllable For example:

It should be noted that when a plural is formed by adding s to words ending in ce, ge, se or ze, the final es is pronounced as a separate syllable For example:

In each of the preceding examples, the singular noun consists of one syllable, whereas the plural noun consists two syllables

b Nouns ending in y

Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant usually form the plural by changing the y to i and adding es For example:

Nouns ending in y preceded by a vowel usually form the plural simply by adding s For

example:

c Plurals of proper nouns

Proper nouns form plurals following the rules given above, except that proper nouns ending in y always form the plural simply by adding s, even when the y is preceded by a consonant For

example:

d Nouns ending in f or fe

Some English nouns ending in f or fe change the f to v when forming the plural For instance, the following nouns ending in f form the plural by changing the f to v and adding es:

In addition, the following nouns ending in fe form the plural by changing the f to v and adding s:

There are also a few nouns ending in f which can form the plural in two different ways For

example:

Most other nouns ending in f or fe form the plural simply by adding s.

e Nouns ending in o

Some English nouns ending in o form the plural by adding s, some form the plural by adding es, and some can form the plural by adding either s or es The following fairly commonly used nouns form the plural by adding es:

Most other nouns ending in o, particularly those of Spanish or Italian origin, can form the plural simply by adding s; however a good dictionary should be consulted in cases of doubt For

example:

f Foreign words

Many words from other languages have been adopted into the English language Most of these

form the plural by adding s or es, but some, particularly Greek and Latin words used for

scientific purposes, form the plural in the same way that they do in the original language For example:

medium media

g Hyphenated nouns

In the case of nouns formed from two or more words joined by hyphens, usually only the last word forms a plural However, there are a few cases in which only the first word forms a plural For example:

h Numbers and letters

Numbers, letters, and other symbols can form plurals by adding 's For example:

i Irregular plurals

The English language has not always used s to form plurals There are still a few words surviving from Old English, which do not use s to form the plural For example:

Nouns ending in man usually form the plural by changing man to men For example:

A few nouns do not change in the plural For example: