Chapter 3

One Cool and One Hot Topic:

Forming Plurals of Nouns and
Pronouns
S ingular and plural nouns are not a hot topic. People sometimes misspell them or mess up
an irregular form, but that’s about it. In this chapter, I help you avoid these errors by pro-
viding singular nouns that you turn into plurals.

Pronouns, on the other hand, have been a hot topic for a long time — centuries, to be exact. In
fact, the 2019 Merriam-Webster Dictionary word of the year was they. I discuss the shifting mean-
ings of they, them, their, and theirs in “A Note about Pronouns” in the introduction to this book.
Here, I ask you to sort singular and plural pronouns, so you can correctly match pronouns with
the words they represent.

The Questions You’ll Work On

In this chapter, you work on questions that cover the following concepts:

» Forming plurals of common and proper nouns, both regular and irregular

» Creating plural forms of hyphenated and compound words

» ac ling i cult pronouns such as everything, one, either, all, some, that, which, who, and so forth

CHAPTER 3 One Cool and One Hot Topic: Forming Plurals of Nouns and Pronouns 27
What to Watch Out For
Keep these points in mind when you’re answering the questions in this chapter:

» Most nouns form the plural by adding the letter s. For nouns ending in ch, sh, x, s, and z, add es.

» Nouns ending in a y change the y to i and add es if the letter preceding the y is a consonant (any
letter except a, e, i, o, or u).

» Add s or es to the most important word in a hyphenated or compound noun.

» These pronouns are always singular: I, me, my, he, his, she, her, hers, one, everyone, everything,
everybody, no one, nothing, nobody, someone, something, somebody, either, neither, each, other, and
another.

» These pronouns are always plural: our, ours, few, both, several, and many.

» The pronouns you, your, yours, they, them, their, and theirs may be either singular or plural. (See “A
Note about Pronouns” in the introduction for more information about they, them, their and theirs.)

» Relative pronouns (that, which, who) are singular if they refer to singular nouns or pronouns and
plural if they refer to plural nouns or pronouns.

» These pronouns can be either singular or plural: all, any, most, some, and none. If one of these
pronouns refers to a plural (for example, all of the shows, in which all refers to shows), the
pronoun is plural. If the pronoun refers to a singular (for example, most of the air, in which most
refers to air), the pronoun is singular.

Forming Plural Nouns 154. monkey, turkey, baby

151–165 What is the correct plural form of these

nouns?

155. zoo, success, edge

151. stitch, telephone, tax

156. child, woman, man

152. dye, splash, sandal

157. deer, elephant, month

153. tomato, catch, mug

28 PART 1 The Questions

158. light, batch, biography
Sorting Singular and
Plural Pronouns
166–195 Identify the singular (S) and/or plural (P)
pronouns in the sentence.
159. microphone, jelly, virus

166. Isaac asked his aunt to reduce her work-

load, but she refused.

160. delivery, essay, wife

167. As the children opened their presents, they

told Santa how great his selections were.

161. Smith, Jones, O’Toole

168. We must apply sunscreen to our arms,

according to my mother.

162. leaf, pitch, copy

169. “Where is your sneaker?” asked the

babysitter as he searched the room I
share with my little sister.
163. son-in-law, kangaroo, tooth

170. “Your yoga class will be delayed an

hour,” I announced when the students
164. alumnus, mass medium, Woods had gathered in front of their lockers.

171. A friend of mine wants to go on vacation

165. species, statistic, vice president
with Molly and Angie, but they prefer to
travel by themselves.

CHAPTER 3 One Cool and One Hot Topic: Forming Plurals of Nouns and Pronouns 29
 172. The cookies are in his pocket; I saw them 178. Neither of my uncles attended the gradu-
myself. ation ceremony, so the principal mailed a
diploma to both.

173. The football coach remarked, “Every-

one is counting on you,” but I was too 179. The talk show host directed the question
stressed to play. to the audience, but someone on stage
answered it anyway.

174. Something is wrong with the computer

because it blinks constantly and ashes a 180. All of the birds ew to the pond, but
warning sign every hour. most of the water had evaporated, and
they soon left.

175. Several of the engineers have examined

the platform and declared it safe, but 181. Either of the restaurants is fine with me
when someone screamed, everyone ran. if anyone would like to stop for a snack.

176. One of the books has an index, but those 182. Arthur located most of the films, but a
on the top shelf do not, so we use them few were hard to find, so we had to sub-
infrequently. stitute others.

177. Both of us entered the international math 183. The hungry man asked me to give him
competition; however, no one from our some of my sandwiches.
country won.

30 PART 1 The Questions

184. Someone rang the bell, but no one 190. The shoes that Mark bought weren’t
was there when Judy opened the door, comfortable, but they were more styl-
expecting to see her brother. ish than anything else he purchased
yesterday.

185. Everyone was required to bring a swimsuit

to camp, but Anna forgot to pack hers. 191. Someone who should know better washed
my best pair of pants in hot water.

186. All of the orange juice spilled, but no

one wiped the table until Billy called the 192. The branches that tapped on the win-
manager and asked for help. dow made too much noise, so I trimmed
them.

187. Each of Bobby’s bicycles is missing one

wheel, but Bobby thinks both of the bikes 193. While she waited to hear the winner’s
can be repaired. name announced, Lulu, who had bought
three lottery tickets, crossed her fingers
for luck.

188. Much of Gene’s trouble stems from his

reliance on everyone’s admiration.
194. The envelope and writing paper, which
were stored in the desk, are hers, but the
stapler is mine.

189. Sharla and Alex like one tattoo but hate

the other; they have mixed opinions
about mine, a blue star.
195. The doctor treated eight patients who
were stricken by the same disease, which
was fatal for nearly all.

CHAPTER 3 One Cool and One Hot Topic: Forming Plurals of Nouns and Pronouns 31