The plural of the nouns

1. Most nouns form their plural by adding s

e.g.: cat – cats; window – windows;

2. Nouns ending in: S, SS, Z, X, SH, CH take es

e.g.: brush – brushes, box- boxes, dress-dresses, bus-buses;

3. Nouns ending in: consonant + o take es

e.g.: potato – potatoes; hero- heroes;

4. Nouns ending in vowel + o take s

e.g.: radio- radios; studio – studios ;
• Exceptions: a. abbreviations ending in o take s
e.g.: kilo (kilogram) – kilos; rhino (rhinoceros)– rhinos;
b. some nouns ending in o of foreign origin take s
e.g.: tango-tangos; casino-casinos;

5. Nouns ending in: consonant + y drop the y and take ies

e.g.: country – countries; body –bodies;

6. Nouns ending in vowel + y take s

e.g.: boy – boys; day –days;

7. Nouns ending in th take s

e.g.: birth –births; death – deaths;

8. Some nouns ending in f,fe take s

e.g.: proof – proofs; roof – roofs; giraffe – giraffes;

9. Other nouns ending in f,fe drop the f,fe and take ves
e.g.: wife – wives; thief –thieves; shelf – shelves; elf –elves; leaf – leaves; wolf - wolves
knife – knives; life- lives; half –halves;

10. Some of the nouns have irregular plural

e.g.: man – men; woman—women; ox – oxen ; louse – lice ; goose- geese; foot – feet;
tooth – teeth; child – children; mouse – mice;

11. Some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural
e.g. carp – carp; sheep – sheep; deer – deer; salmon – salmon; fish – fish/ fishes;

12. A number of nouns have only singular form: advice (a piece of advice, some advice),
money, information, sand, rice, petrol, oil, sugar, salt, pepper, milk, wine, juice, water,
soda, chocolate, coffee, soap, soup, meat, police, peace, weather, furniture, glass, wood,
iron, paper, gold, silver, cotton, beauty, knowledge, happiness, bread, business, butter,
income, etc.;
Some uncountable nouns can be made countable by putting the following words in front
of them: jar, bottle, piece, loaf, cup, bar, glass, kilo, carton, bowl, can, jug, slice, pot, tin,
packet: e.g.: a bar of soap- two bars of soap; a bar of chocolate- two bars of chocolate; a
loaf of bread - three loaves of bread; a kilo of meat- four kilos of meat;

13. A number of nouns have only plural form: trousers, jeans, pyjamas, tights, shorts,
mumps, measles, cards, billiards, binoculars, scissors, glasses, spectacles, pliers, tongs,
contents, savings, winnings, customs, fireworks, the Alps, the Carpathians, economics,
politics, mathematics, headquarters, manners, etc;

14. Nouns that are part of compound adjectives denoting measure, quantity, etc. get zero
plural when they precede another noun e.g.: a two-hour exam, a ten- month calendar, a
three day trip, a five-foot ladder, a four- cylinder car; a five-minute conversation, a
five-pound note; a two-week vacation;

15. The plural of compound nouns follows the patterns:

a. the final element is made plural especially if it is a one word noun: e.g.:
armchair- armchairs; bedroom-bedrooms, but also when the elements of the compound
noun are not themselves nouns e.g.: good-for-nothing- good-for-nothings, merry-go-
round- merry-go-rounds;
b. when the first element of a compound is a noun followed by a prepositional
phrase, adverb or adjective, it is the noun that takes the plural form: e.g.: brother-in-law –
brothers-in law, man-of-war- men-of-war, passer-by- passers-by;
c. when the first element of a compound is one of the words: man, woman, lord,
gentleman, knight, both elements of the compound are made plural e.g.: men drivers,
women teachers, men servants;

The plural of the foreign origin nouns:

Latin: bonus- bonuses; genius- genii/ geniuses (English pl.); bacillus- bacilli; stimulus-
stimuli; genus- genera; antenna- antennae; medium- media; bacterium- bacteria;
Greek: basis-bases; crisis-crises; thesis- theses; criterion- criteria; phenomenon-
phenomena
Italian: tempo- tempi/ tempos (English pl.); soprano-sopranos

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS- are nouns that cannot be counted

COUNTABLE NOUNS- have both singular and plural form

A / AN Indefinite article
A – before nouns that begin with a consonant sound e.g.: a house, a car;
AN – before nouns that begin with a vowel sound e.g.: an umbrella; an egg;
Exceptions: an hour (silent h), a university [ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsɪtɪ]
Some is used: in front of uncountable nouns e.g.: some milk and plural countable nouns
e.g.: some books;