Page 11 - Grammar_Programme

Target 1: Nouns

Nouns: Singular and Plural

Nouns can be singular (one item) or plural (more than one). We usually

add an ‘s’ to a noun to change it from singular to plural.

Mario bought a pen. Mario bought four pens.

However, as usual, there are exceptions to this – so here are some other rules
you should know for making plurals:

Add ‘es’ to nouns ending in ‘ss’, ‘x’, ‘zz’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’ or ‘o’, to make the plural.

boss (singular) / bosses (plural) box (singular) / boxes (plural)
stitch (singular) / stitches (plural) hero (singular) / heroes (plural)

For nouns ending ‘y’:
 If the letter before the ‘y’ is a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), just add ‘s’ as normal.

boy (singular) / boys (plural) monkey (singular) / monkeys (plural)

 If the letter before the ‘y’ is a consonant (all letters except for a, e, i,

o, u), change the ‘y’ to ‘ies’.

story (singular) / stories (plural) city (singular) / cities (plural)

For nouns ending in ‘f’ – we usually change the ‘f’ to ‘ves’.
For nouns ending in ‘fe’ – we change the ‘fe’ to ‘ves’.

thief (singular) / thieves (plural) wife (singular) / wives (plural)

There are also some odd (irregular) plurals that do not follow any rule!
Look at these examples:
child (singular) / children (plural) sheep (singular) / sheep (plural)

mouse (singular) / mice (plural) man (singular) / men (plural)

Can you think of any others?

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