Singular and Plural Nouns in English

Rule 1

Most nouns are made plural by adding -s to the

end of the singular form.

For Examples:

 car – cars

 bag – bags

 table – tables

 house – houses

 dog – dogs

Rule 2

Singular nouns that end in ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’,or ‘ss’, form the plural by adding –es.

For Examples:

 bus – buses

 bench – benches

 box – boxes

 dish – dishes

 truss – trusses

 marsh – marshes

 lunch – lunches

 tax – taxes

 blitz – blitzes

 watch – watches

Excepting: 

 fez – fezzes

 gas –  gasses
  quiz – quizzes

 bus – busses

Rule 3

The plural form of some nouns that end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ is made by changing the ending to -ves.

For Examples:

 half – halves

 hoof – hooves

 calf – calves

 elf – elves

 shelf – shelves

 leaf – leaves

 loaf – loaves

 thief – thieves

 wolf – wolves

 life – lives

 knife – knives

 scarf – scarves

 wife –  wives 

Excepting:

 cuff – cuffs

 knockoff – knockoffs

 chef – chefs

 belief – beliefs

 roof – roofs

 chief – chiefs
Rule 4

Nouns ending in -o:

Nouns that end in ‘o’ preceded by a vowel are made plural by adding -s.

For Examples:

 radio – radios

 stereo – stereos

 video  – videos

Nouns that end in “o” preceded by a consonant are made plural by adding -es.

For Examples:

 potato – potatoes

 tomato – tomatoes

 hero – heroes

 echo – echoes

 veto – vetoes

 domino – dominoes

Excepting: 

 piano – pianos

 photo – photos

 halo – halos

 soprano – sopranos

Rule 5

Nouns ending in ‘y‘:

When the ‘y’ follows a consonant, changing ‘y’ to ‘i’ and adding –es:

For Examples:

 city – cities

 candy – candies
  country – countries

 family – families

 cherry – cherries

 lady – ladies

 puppy – puppies

 party – parties

When the ‘y’ follows a vowel, the plural is formed by retaining the ‘y’ and adding –s:

For Examples:

 day – days

 holiday – holidays

 ray – rays

 boy – boys

 toy – toys

 key – keys

 donkey – donkeys

Rule 6

Changing the spelling of singular noun:

For Examples:

 person – people

 ox – oxen

 man – men

 woman – women

 caveman – cavemen

 policeman – policemen

 child – children
 tooth – teeth

 foot – feet

 goose – geese

 mouse – mice

 mouse – lice
 part of function or "job" example words example sentences
speech

Verb action or state (to) be, have, do, like, EnglishClub is a web site.
work, sing, can, must I like EnglishClub.

Noun thing or person pen, dog, work, music, This is my dog. He lives in my house.
town, London, teacher, We live in London.
John

Adjective describes a noun good, big, red, well, My dogs are big. I like big dogs.
interesting

Determiner limits or a/an, the, 2, some, I have two dogs and some rabbits.

"determines" a noun many

Adverb describes a verb, quickly, silently, well, My dog eats quickly. When he

adjective or adverb badly, very, really is very hungry, he eats really quickly.

Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.

Preposition links a noun to to, at, after, on, but We went to school on Monday

another word

Parts of speech

Parts of Speech Example

Here are some examples of sentences made with different English parts of speech:

verb

Stop!

noun verb

John works.

pronoun verb noun

She loves animals.

nou verb noun adverb

Tara speaks English well

noun verb adjective noun

Tara speak good English.

pronoun ver preposition determine noun adverb

b r

She ran to the station quickly.

pron. verb adj. noun conjunction pron. verb pron.

She likes big snakes but I hate them.

interjectio pron conj det. adj. noun verb prep. noun adverb

n . .
Well, she and my youn John walk to school slowly.