The Ultimate Guide to Singular and Plural Nouns

In English, understanding singular and plural nouns will make it easy for you to speak and understand passages, so

What is the meaning of singular and plural nouns?What are the rules of singular and plural nouns?

In this article, we will deeply discuss the answers to the two questions above to understand each and every point of the passage. Don’t skip till the end.

When the noun stands for one, it is a singular noun, and when the noun stands for more than one, it is said to be a plural noun.

here are some rules to use when the singular nouns are changing to plural nouns, and they are explained below one by one.

Most of the nouns we add “s” at the end, for examples:

Boy          boys

Girl          girls

Book        books

Pen           pens

Exercise one:

change the following nouns into plural form: cow, farm, gate, and hen.

The words that end in ch, sh, x, z, o, and s at –es, for example, 

Watch          watches

Dish             dishes

Fox              foxes

Jazz             jazzes

Mango Mangoes 

Exercise two:

Change the following into plural form: brush, beach, tax, hero, and bus.

The words that end in “f” or “fe” change “f” or “fe” into –ves,

for example, 

Leaf            leaves

Loaf            loaves

Wife          wives 

Knife knives 

Exercise three:

change the following into plural form: elf, life, self, and calf.

The words that end in “y” change the “y” into “i” and then add –es if a consonant comes before the noun, for example:

Baby          babies

Fly              flies

City            cities

Army         armies

Note: if a vowel comes before the y, it doesn’t follow the rule above; instead of changing it, we will add only –s. Example: –

day→days,

boy→boys

Exercise four:

Change the following into plural form: enemy, lady, pony, bully, way, and lorry.

Some nouns don’t follow one of these rules and form their plurals by special form; it is only to memorise or to find in the dictionary. Some of these nouns are:

Ox              oxen

Child          children

Mouse        mice

Man           men

Woman    women

Exercise four:

Try the plural form of these known words: foot, tooth, goose, focus, and person.

Note: Some nouns don’t change when they are made plural. Some of these nouns are:

Deer             deer

Sheep           sheep

Example:- I saw one deer on the farm yesterday, but today there are many deer on the farm.

To compose a right and understandable sentence with singular or plural nouns, you have to use suitable auxiliary verbs with singular nouns: is, am, and was has can be used, and with plural nouns, we can use are, were, and also have.

for example:

Singular form

A boy is in the kitchen. 

A man was on the ship.

Ali has a new car.

plural form 

Boys are in the house.

Men were on the boat. 

Teachers have a new class.

The words a boy,    a man, and Ali are singular; we can use “is” “was,” or has.

The words boys, men, and teachers are plural nouns we use with are, were, or have.

The noun that stands for one is a singular noun, and the noun that stands for more than one is said to be a plural noun.

The bay is on the bed.The words “baby” and “bed” are singular nouns.The book is on the table.The words “book” and “table” are also singular nouns. 

Singular nouns show only one thing; for example, a book is in the bag” means that only one book is in the bag, but plural nouns show more than one thing; for example, books are in the bag, means that more than one book is in the bag.