NOUN NUMBERS (changing singular to plural), Changed meanings of plural forms, etc.

                                                          NOUN NUMBERS

                                                             (singular-plural)

Lecture on Noun Numbers

                                                    NOUN

Naming words are called nouns.

Name of person: Sita, Gita, Ali, Rajesh, etc.

Names of places: Agra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, etc.

Names of things: table, chair, jug, soap, etc.

A Proper Noun is a name of particular person or place.

A Common Noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the same kind or class.

Sita is a good girl.

Robin is my pet dog.

Pizza Hut is my favorite restaurant.

In the above sentences Sita, Robin and Pizza Hut are Proper Nouns and girl, dog and restaurant are Common nouns.

Material Noun denotes the matter or substance of which the things are made.

Milk, soap, tea, sugar, coffee, rice, gold, silver, iron, wood, etc. are Material nouns.

The collective noun is the group of same kind of person, place, or things. e.g.

Swarm of bees

Litter of puppies

Fleet of ship

Herd of cattle

Flight of birds

Abstract Noun relates to qualities, states, or action which cannot be seen or touched.

Quality: Kindness, brightness, honesty, beauty, bravery, wisdom, etc.

Action: laughter, movement, judgment, etc.

State: boyhood, childhood, youth, slavery, etc.

*Note: The names of subjects of Arts and Sciences are also Abstract Nouns e.g. Physics, Chemistry, philosophy, Geography, etc.

NOUNS

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Countable Nouns Uncountable Nouns

Common Nouns & Some Collective Nouns Proper, Material & Abstract Nouns

(Can have numerical words like one, two, etc.) (If used as a common noun, it can use an

Many, few, a few are used Article a, an, the before it). much, little,

a little is used

Countable Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
a boy, a book, a pen, etc. A few boys, a few books, etc. Many boys, many books, etc. Some boys, some books, etc. A lot of boys, a lot of books, etc.	Rice, water, milk, etc. A little rice, a little milk, etc. Much rice, much water, etc. Some rice, some water, etc. A lot of rice, a lot of water, etc.

*Note: Money is a collective noun. Rupee, Dollar, etc. are countable nouns. Much money but two hundred rupees is used.

*Any is used in questioning and a lot of, lots of is used in answering.

Q. Is there any water in the jug?

A. Yes, there is some.

Q.Is there any sugar in the jar?

A. Yes, there is a lot.

Q. Is there any English books in the library?

A. Yes, there are lots of English books.

**If a countable noun is placed before an uncountable noun, it may have a, an, the, many, a few, one, two, three, etc.

E.g. A kilo of rice, a cup of tea, the cup of tea, a few cups of tea, many cups of tea, etc.

Articles/Number + Countable + of + Uncountable

A heap of sand

A bag of sugar

Two bags of sugar

Many bags of sugar

Many more bags of sugar

A few bags of sugar

Many packets of salt

A few boxes of bread

Several bottles of honey

Two tons of coal

Three pieces of bread

Four kilos of flour

Five liters of petrol

Six bottles of milk

Seven bales of cotton

Eight vials of medicine

Nine wagons of limestone

***When “full” is added to a countable noun, it becomes “ful”

A bagful of sweets

A handful of rice

A spoonful of sugar

Three spoonfuls of salt

THE NOUN: NUMBER

The countable nouns have two forms: Singular and Plural

How plurals are formed

1. By adding -s to the singular

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Book	Books	Desk	Desks
Cat	Cats	Pen	Pens
Chair	Chairs	Table	Tables
Cow	Cows	Dog	Dogs
Lion	Lions	King	Kings
Girl	Girls	House	Houses
Eye	Eyes	Ear	Ears
Hand	Hands	Head	Heads

2. Nouns ending with –s, -sh, -ch or -x , plural is formed by adding –es.

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Ass	Asses	Gas	Gases
Glass	Glasses	Class	Classes
Lass	Lasses	Bush	Bushes
Brush	Brushes	Dish	Dishes
Box	Boxes	Fox	Foxes
Kiss	Kisses	Inch	Inches
Bench	Benches	Branch	Branches
Bunch	Bunches	Church	Churches

*Note: If –ch sounds as ‘k’ plural is formed by adding –s.

Singular Plural

Monarch                            Monarchs

Stomach                              Stomachs

3. Nouns ending in –0 having vowel before it, takes –s to form plural.

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Bamboo	Bamboos	Cuckoo	Cuckoos
Radio	Radios	Studio	Studios
Folio	Folios

4. Nouns ending in -0 having a consonant before it, takes –es to form plural.

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Hero	Heroes	Zero	Zeroes
Negro	Negroes	Buffalo	Buffaloes
Echo	Echoes	Mosquito	Mosquitoes
Mango	Mangoes	Potato	Potatoes

***Exceptions

Dynamo Dynamos Piano Pianos

Photo Photos Quarto Quartos

5. Nouns ending in –y having a vowel before it, form their plural by adding –s

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Boy	Boys	Toy	Toys
Key	Keys	Monkey	Monkeys
Day	Days	Play	Plays
Ray	Rays	Donkey	Donkeys

6. Nouns ending in –y having consonant before it, form their plural by changing –y into –I and adding –es.

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Army	Armies	Baby	Babies
City	Cities	Country	Countries
Copy	Copies	Duty	Duties
Fly	Flies	Lady	Ladies
Duty	Duties	Story	Stories

7. Nouns ending in –f or –fe forms their plural by changing –f or –fe into –v and adding –es.

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Calf	Calves	half	Halves
Knife	Knives	life	Lives
Leaf	Leaves	loaf	Loves
Self	Selves	shelf	shelves
Thief	Thieves	wife	Wives
Wolf	Wolves	sheaf	sheaves

8. Several nouns ending in –f form their plural by adding –s.

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Chief	Chiefs	Cliff	Cliffs
Brief	Briefs	Belief	Beliefs
Gulf	Gulfs	Hoof	Hoofs
Proof	Proofs	Roof	Roofs

9. By changing the inside Vowels

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Man	Men	Woman	Women
Gentleman	Gentlemen	Foot	Feet
Tooth	Teeth	Goose	Geese
Human	Humans [exception]

10. By changing inside vowel and consonant

Mouse                                  Mice

Louse                                    Lice

11. By adding –en

Ox                                         Oxen

Child                                       Children

Brother                                     Brethren

12. In compound nouns, plural form is made of principal word

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Son-in-law	Sons-in-law	Daughter-in-law	Daughters-in-law
Mother-in-law	Mothers-in-law	Father-in-law	Fathers-in-law
Maid-servant	Maid-servants	Step-son	Step-sons
Man-of-war	Men-of-war	Commander-in-Chief	Commanders-in-Chief
Step-daughter	Step-daughters	Grant-in-aid	Grants-in-aid
Looker-on	Lookers-on	Passer-by	Passers-by
Washer-man	Washer-men	Grown-up	Grown-ups

13. Compound nouns written without hyphen take –s to form plurals.

Armchair                          Armchairs

 Handful                          Handfuls

Bookcase                            Bookcases

 Pickpocket                          Pickpockets

Bagful                                  Bagfuls

 Spoonful                             Spoonfuls

14. There are some compound nouns which are formed to a double plural.

Man-servant                      Men-servants

 Woman-servant                  Women-servants

Lord-justice                          Lords-justices

 Knight-templar                     Knights-Templars

15. Some typical plurals (Foreign Plurals)

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Agendum	Agenda	Bacterium	Bacteria
Formula	Formulae/Formulas	Alumnus	Alumni
Appendix	Appendices	Axis	Axes
Bacillus	Bacilli	Basis	Bases
Bureau	Bureaux/Bureaus	Corpus	Corpora/Corpuses
Crisis	Crises	Criterion	Criteria
Curriculum	Curricula	Datum	Data
Focus	Foci/Focuses	Forum	Fora/Forums
Genus	Genera	Hypothesis	Hypotheses
Medium	Media	Memorandum	Memoranda
Oasis	Oases	Ovum	Ova
Phenomenon	Phenomena	Radius	Radii
Serum	Sera	Syllabus	Syllabi
Terminus	Termini/Terminuses	Vertex	Vertices

16. Nouns having different meanings in different numbers.

Advice-Counsel                 Advice- Information

Air- Wind                            Airs- manners

Force-Power                          Forces-Army

Good-Well-being                  Goods-Things

                      Iron-A metal                        Irons- Chains made of iron

                 Physic-Medicine                  Physics- Physical science

Return-Coming back                  Returns-Accounts

Sand- kind of matter                           Sands-Deserts

Wood-Timber                      Woods-Forest

17. Nouns with two plural forms with different meanings.

Singular Plural

Brother Brothers- Sons of the same father

Brethren- members of an organization or religious group

Cloth- Cloths- pieces of cloth

Clothes- Garments

Fish-   Fish- Collectively fish

Fishes- Fishes of different type

Genius-  Geniuses- men of talent

Genii- spirits

17. Nouns with no change

Deer -               -Deer

Hair-                     Hair

Sheep-                 Sheep

Pice-                     Pice

Public-                  Public

Practice Exercises

What is the correct plural of the word?

1. These (person)  are protesting against the president. 

2. The (woman)  over there want to meet the manager. 

3. My (child)  hate eating pasta. 

4. I am ill. My (foot)  hurt.

5. Muslims kill (sheep)  in a religious celebration.

6. I clean my (tooth)  three times a day. 

7. The (student )  are doing the exercise right now. 

8. The (fish)  I bought is in the fridge. 

9. They are sending some (man)  to fix the roof. 

10. Most (houswife)  work more than ten hours a day at home.

11. Where did you put the (knife)  ?
    On the (shelf)  .

12. (Goose)  like water.

13. (Piano)  are expensive

14. Some (policeman)  came to arrest him.

15. Where is my (luggage)  ?
    In the car!

Write down the correct form of the plural:

1. city -  .

2. house -  .

3. boy -  .

4. family -  .

5. life -  .

6. photo -  .

7. phone -  .

8. sandwich -  .

9. nurse -  .

10. elf -  .

11. phenomenon -  .

12. criterion -  .

13. village -  .

14. toy -  .

Change the following sentences from singular to plural or from the plural to singular as in the examples.

15. Top of Form

1. She is a beautiful lady.
.

2. A book is a good friend.
.

3. A small car is a great vehicle.
.

4. She is a smart girl.
.

5. It is an old church.
.

6. Is this man a worker?
?

7. Is he a nice character?
?

8. These pants belong to those women.
.

9. Are the students in the classroom?
?

10. These glasses aren't for those women.
.

11. Are the bottles on the table?
?

12. The brush is under the chair.
.

13. I am not a famous woman.
.

14. The pencils aren't in the boxes.
.

15. I like those barbies.
.

16. Bottom of Form

Worksheet-1

Write the plural form of the nouns given below.

child………………… man………………… woman………………… wife………………… knife………………… half………………… mouse………………… goose………………… tooth………………… foot………………… elf………………… loaf………………… leaf………………… knife………………… potato………………… tomato………………… piano………………… cactus………………… medium………………… phenomenon…………… category………………… syllabus………………… analysis………………… thesis………………… diagnosis………………… crisis………………… nucleus………………… criterion………………… toe………………… datum………………… fox………………… lily………………… dish………………… wrench………………… goose………………… flash………………… deer………………… sheep………………… reef………………… dwarf………………… church………………… diary…………………

Worksheet-2

Rewrite the following sentences using the plural forms of the nouns and making appropriate changes to other words.

1. There is a picture on the wall. ……………………………………………………………………………………………….

2. That is not a worm: It is a snake. …………………………………………………………………………………………….

3. Is there a box of chocolate on the table? ………………………………………………………………………………..

4. A cow has a tail. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

5. That is a squirrel, isn’t it? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. I saw her riding away on a horse. …………………………………………………………………………………………..

7. We cannot send a letter without a stamp on it.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

8. His sister is a nurse, isn’t she? ………………………………………………………………………………………….

9. A fly is an insect, but a spider is not. ……………………………………………………………………………………..

10. That child has an apple in his hand. ……………………………………………………………………………………..

Worksheet-3

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the words in brackets.

EXAMPLE: My (friend) The friends’ names are Mark and John.

1. Our book club is reading my favorite (author)__________________ books now.

2. Maria, show me your (pet) __________________ Photos.

3. The hurricane destroyed many (farmer)___________________ houses.

4. I can’t read these (book) _____________________: The print is too small.

5. I know many doctors. (He) ______________ live nearby.