CATOLIC UNIVERSITY OF MOZAMBIQUE

Distance Teaching Institute – IED

Center of Resources of Nampula

Nouns (plural of regular and irregular nouns)

Discente: Sandra Manuel Chico

Cod: 708230857

Course: History Teaching Degree

Subject: English Language
Year: 1st
Stream: J

Nampula, September, 2023

 Paper of feedback
Classification
Category Indicators Maximum Tutor´s
Standards pontuation mark Subt
otal
 Cover 0.5
 Index 0.5
Structure Aspect  Introduction 0.5
organization  Discussion 0.5
 Conclusion 0.5
 Bibliography 0.5
 Contextualization 1.0

 Objectives 1.0
description
Introduction  Work 2.0
methodology

 Articulation, 2.0
domain, textual
coherence
Contents
 Bibliography 2.0
Analyses revision
and  Exploration of 2.0
discussion studies

Conclusion  Practical 2.0

theoretical
contributions
 Pagination, type 1.0
of letter,
General aspects Formatting paragraph, space
between line

Bibliography APA Accuracy and 4.0

references Standards consistency of citations /
6th edition bibliography references
in citation
and
bibliography

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1. Introduction
The proposed bibliographical research work is from the English discipline, and its topic is:
Nouns (plural of regular and irregular nouns). It should be noted that,
a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are the most common type
of word in English, and they are essential for building sentences. Here are some examples of
nouns:
 Persons: teacher, student, doctor, president, friend;
 Places: school, home, park, city, country;
 Things: car, book, house, pen, computer;
 Ideas: love, happiness, freedom, justice, peace.

Nouns can also play different roles in sentences. For example, a noun can be the subject of a
sentence, the object of a sentence, or the complement of a sentence.
Here are some examples of nouns playing different roles in sentences:
 Subject: The dog barked.
 Object: I saw the house.
 Complement: He is a doctor.
Nouns are an essential part of the English language, and it is important to understand their
different types and functions in order to use them correctly.

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2. Nouns (plural of regular and irregular nouns)

According to Klammer (2010), nouns are commonly defined as people, places, or things.
They address the “who” or “what” of a sentence. The most reliable sign that a given word is a
noun is if it follows an article like “the” or “a”.

Examples: The world is round. I saw a vampire last night.

Nouns can also follow possessives or numbers.

Examples: There are four pillows on my bed. Our car was stolen.

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004:51), define the noun according to its functional (semantic) and
structural (grammatical) properties respectively. Semantically a noun “expresses a person,
other being, inanimate object or abstraction, bounded or unbounded.” and grammatically
a noun “is either count or mass; if count, may be either singular or plural, plural usually
inflected with -s; can be made possessive, adding -’s/-s’; can take the in front; can be Subject
in a clause”.

As Langacker (1991:33) explains, the function of the noun is “limited to specifying a type but
a full nominal designates a grounded instance of that type, i.e., an instance distinguished
from others and situated with respect to the speaker/hearer knowledge”. The noun
interacts, functionally, with other elements of the nominal group to construe the
participating entity, but it itself does not express a functional role at clause level.

2.1. How the plural of nouns is formed in English

The plural of nouns in English is generally formed by adding an -s or -es to the end of the
singular noun. However, there are a number of exceptions to this rule.

General rules for forming the plural of nouns

 Add -s to most nouns.
Examples: dog → dogs, cat → cats, house → houses, tree → trees,

 Add -es to nouns that end in -s, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z.
Examples: bus → buses, dish → dishes, watch → watches, box → boxes, buzz →
buzzes.

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  Add -ies to nouns that end in consonant + y.
Examples: baby → babies, city → cities, party → parties

 Change the -y to -i and add -es to nouns that end in vowel + y.

Examples: fly → flies, boy → boys, toy → toys

Exceptions to the general rules

 Some nouns that end in -o add -s.
Examples: Potato → Potatoes, Tomato → Tomatoes, Hero → Heroes

 Some nouns that end in -o add -es.

Examples: Radio → Radios, Photo → Photos, Piano → Pianos

 Some nouns that end in -f or -fe change the -f or -fe to -ves and add -s.
Examples: wife → wives, life → lives, wolf → wolves, knife → knives

 Some nouns have irregular plural forms.

Examples: man → men, woman → women, child → children, foot → feet, tooth →
teeth, mouse → mice

2.1.1. Regular nouns

Regular nouns are nouns that can be formed into their plural form by simply adding “-s” and
“-es” to the end. For example, the noun “flower” is singular, and it indicates one thing. This
noun can be made plural by adding “s” at the end as “flowers,” giving the meaning “more
flowers.”
Examples of regular nouns are
 Dog → Dogs
 Cat → Cats
 House → Houses
 Tree → Trees
 Book → Books
 Table → tables
 Chair → chairs
 Car → cars
 Bus → buses
 Train → trains
 Airplane → airplanes

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2.1.2. Irregular nouns
Irregular nouns are nouns that do not follow the same rule of regular nouns or any standard
rule when converting into plurals. For example, the irregular noun “child” changes into plural
as “children.” It does not use any addition of “-s” or “-es” at the end, like regular nouns. If the
noun “thief” is taken as another example, it changes to the plural as “thieves.” Furthermore,
nouns like “sheep” and “scissors” have the same formation, and these nouns can be either
singular or plural. This means the plural form of “sheep” and “scissors” remains “sheep” and
“scissors.”

Examples of Irregular nouns are

 Man → men
 Woman → women
 Child → children
 Foot → feet
 Tooth → teeth
 Mouse → mice
 Goose → geese
 Deer → deer
 Fish → fish
 Sheep → sheep
 Octopus → octopuses

Synthesis
The popular definition of a noun is that it ‘describes a person, place or thing’. In fact we use
nouns to express a range of additional meanings such as concepts, qualities, organizations,
communities, sensations and events. Nouns convey a substantial proportion of the information
in most texts.

2.2. Plural of regular and irregular nouns

Regular forms:
Most countable nouns have a plural form that ends in s.

Irregular forms:
Many irregular plural forms involve a change in vowel.
Man ⇒ men tooth ⇒ teeth foot ⇒ feet

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Learners sometimes find it difficult to remember which form is singular and which is plural.
Some nouns have the same singular and plural forms.
a sheep ⇒ two sheep a series ⇒ two series

Several nouns which end in s fall into this category, e.g. a/various means of doing something,
a/some crossroads.

A few irregular plural forms are very different from the singular form. The most common and
problematic, example is person ⇒ people.

Nouns which have been absorbed into English from other languages sometimes keep their
original plural form.
Plateau ⇒ plateaux Cherub ⇒ cherubim Mafioso ⇒ mafiosi

A few words can be treated as either uncountable or plural: Politics is about people./Nobody
knows what his politics are.

In these cases different shades of meaning may be involved. Politics, for example, is more
often uncountable when the word refers to the general science of politics, and plural when it
has a more specific reference.
A few nouns exist only in a plural form [e.g. arms (in the military sense), arrears, clothes].

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3. Conclusion
The present study has been conducted to scrutinise the Nouns (plural of regular and irregular
nouns), a noun can be defined as a word used to name a person, place, or thing. By a thing
here, it means that it comprises something which can be perceived by human senses, or that
which cannot be perceived but can be thought of.

Nouns can be classified into different types, including:

 Common nouns: Common nouns name general categories of people, places, things, or
ideas, such as "dog," "city," or "love."
 Proper nouns: Proper nouns name specific people, places, things, or ideas, and they are
always capitalized, such as "Fido," "New York City," or "The Declaration of
Independence."
 Concrete nouns: Concrete nouns name things that can be perceived with the senses,
such as "table," "flower," or "music."
 Abstract nouns: Abstract nouns name things that cannot be perceived with the senses,
such as "love," "justice," or "freedom."
 Countable nouns: Countable nouns can be counted, such as "one dog," "two books," or
"three houses."
 Uncountable nouns: Uncountable nouns cannot be counted, such as "water," "air," or
"love.

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4. References
Cambridge University Press. (2020). Cambridge grammar of English: A comprehensive guide
for students and teachers. Cambridge University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 3rd ed.
London: Arnold.
Klammer, Thomas P. & Muriel Schulz. (2010). Analyzing English Grammar. 6th ed. New
York: Longman. Print.
Langacker, R. (1991). Concept, image, and symbol: the cognitive basis of grammar. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter.

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