Grammar Unit 1.3: Nouns – Singular and Plural Nouns

Singular Nouns

Singular means “Only one of”. When we say that a noun is singular, we are implying that there is only one of it.

Singular nouns are always preceded by the article “a”, “an”, or “the”. For example:

• a person
• a boy
• a girl
• a man
• a woman
• an animal
• a cat
• a dog
• a mouse
• a bird
• a school
• a house
• a bank
• a building
• an apple
• an orange
• a watermelon
• a fruit
• a tree
• a garden
• the child
• the parent
• the teacher
• the student

Plural Nouns

Plural means “more than one of”. When we say a noun is plural, it means that there is more than one of that noun.

Plural nouns are sometimes, not all the time, preceded by the article “the”. Plural nouns DO NOT have the article “a” or “an” in front of them. The article “a” or “an” can only be used with singular nouns. For example:

• people
• boys
• girls
• men
• women
• the animals
• the cats
• the dogs
• the mice
• the birds
• schools
• houses
• banks
• buildings
• the apples
• the oranges
• the watermelons
• the fruits
• the trees
• the gardens
• children
• parents
• teachers
• students

How do you convert a singular noun to a plural noun?

#1: Add “s” to the end of the noun

For some nouns, NOT ALL, you add an “s” at the end to create a plural noun. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
boy	boys
girl	girls
cat	cats
school	schools
apple	apples

#2: Change the “y” to “ies”

There are some nouns that end with “y”. To convert them into plural nouns, you change the “y” to “ies”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
activity	activities
bunny	bunnies
canary	canaries
daisy	daisies
enemy	enemies

#3: Add “es” to the end of the noun

There are some singular nouns that end with “s”, “sh”, “ch”, “x” or “z”. To make them plural, simply add “es” at the end. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
bus	buses
wish	wishes
church	churches
fox	foxes
quiz	quizzes

#4: Change “f” or “fe” to “ves”

There are some nouns that end with “f” or “fe”. To make them plural, change them to “ves”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
leaf	leaves
knife	knives
hoof	hooves
sheaf	sheaves
wife	wives

#5: Add “s” after the “y”

Not all nouns that end with “y” need to be changed to “ies”. For some of these nouns, you can just add “s”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
day	days
play	plays
boy	boys
monkey	monkeys
toy	toys

#6: Add “s” after the “o”

There are some nouns that end with “o”. To make them plural, simply add “s” at the end. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
zoo	zoos
photo	photos
piano	pianos
video	videos
radio	radios

#7: Add “es” after the “o”

Some nouns that end with “o” can become plural by simply adding “es”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
hero	heroes
echo	echoes

#8: Change “us” to “i”

There are some nouns that end with “us”. To make them plural, simply change “us” to “i”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
cactus	cacti
focus	foci
octopus	octopi

#9: Change “is” to “es”

Some nouns end with “is”. To make them plural, change “is” to “es”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
analysis	analyses
crisis	crises
ellipsis	ellipses

#10: Change “on” or “um” to “a”

Some nouns end with “on” or “um”. To make them plural, change “on” to “a”. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
phenomenon	phenomena
criterion	criteria
agendum	agenda
millennium	millennia
bacterium	bacteria

#11: Change the spelling (Irregular Nouns)

There are nouns that we call “irregular nouns”. These nouns go from singular to plural by changing the way they are spelt. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
child	children
mouse	mice
man	men
woman	women
tooth	teeth

#12: Change nothing at all

There are some nouns that have the same spelling whether they are singular or plural. No changes need to be made. For example:

Singular Noun	Plural Noun
sheep	sheep
fish	fish
deer	deer
equipment	equipment
moose	moose

Knowing whether a noun is singular or plural is crucial as you often need to let your listeners know if you are referring to one or many? For example: if you say, ‘I would like an apple, please,’ it tells the listener that you only want ONE apple. If you say, ‘I would like some apples, please,’ you are telling the listener that you want more than one apple.