Problems with Nouns

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Problems with Nouns
Singular or Plural????
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Introduction
Problems with Nouns

• Look at the sentences below. Whats wrong? Move
  your
• mouse over each sentence to see the answer.

Bedrooms should be plural because the sentence
says there are three.
1. I have three bedroom in my house.
The word milks is incorrect, because it is a
non-count noun and cannot have an s.
2. There are many milks in the refrigerator.
3. Those chair are in the wrong room.
4. There are five reds cars.
6. Your childs are beautiful.
5. Some of the class are at night.
7. Would you like a few milk?
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Guideline 1
Count and Non-Count Nouns

• In English, we have countable and non-countable
  nouns.
• Some examples of countable and non-countable
  nouns are
• below.

Countable Nouns
Non-Countable Nouns
More Non-Countable Nouns
chair student day song computer room
love money weather food fruit furniture
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Guideline 2
Countable Nouns

• Countable nouns can have singular and plural
  forms and
• can be counted numerically. Most countable nouns
  can be
• made plural by adding s or es.

book
books
3 books
box
boxes
2 boxes
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Guideline 3
Non-Countable Nouns

• Non-countable nouns have only one form and cant
  be
• counted numerically. Look at the examples below.

monies
money
one money
money
healths
health
two health
health
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Guideline 4
Non-Countable Nouns

• Non-countable nouns cannot take the plural s or
  es or
• an article (a, an).

a furniture
furniture
furnitures
furniture
a news
news
newses
news
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A singular noun names one person, place, thing or
idea.

• A plural noun names more than one person, place,
  thing, or idea.

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PLURAL NOUNS

• Most nouns in English are made into plural nouns
  by adding an s to the singular form, however,
  .

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If the noun ends with an s, ch, sh, x, or z, an
es is added to make the noun plural.

• Make the following nouns plural
• box loss
• dish quiz
• church house

boxes
losses
quizzes
dishes
churches
houses
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Add s to nouns ending in a vowel and y.

• key
• toy
• monkey

keys
toys
monkeys
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Change y to an i and add es to nouns ending in a
consonant and y.

• sky
• hobby
• penny

• skies

hobbies
pennies
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What about nouns that end in a vowel?

Add an s to nouns ending in a vowel and o.
radio - radios
zoo - zoos
Add an s to musical terms ending in o.
solo - solos
cello - cellos
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Nouns ending in a consonant and o should be
learned.
If youre not sure, check the dictionary.
echo echoes
potato potatoes
tomato tomatoes
zero zeros, zeroes
hero heroes
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Some nouns have special plural forms.
For example .
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Add s to many nouns ending in f, fe, or ff.
roof - roofs
cliff - cliffs
But, some nouns drop the f or fe and add ves.
calf calves
life - lives
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PLURALS of the nouns ending in f / -fe or ff.
Belief beliefs Roof roofs Proof - proofs Cuff cuffs Muff muffs Cliff cliffs Reef reefs Brief briefs Chief chiefs Kerchief kerchiefs Chef chefs Plaintiff plaintiffs Sheriff sheriffs Whiff - whiffs Safe safes Fife - fifes Giraffe giraffes Gulf gulfs Dwarf dwarfs Leaf leaves Self - selves Half halves Shelf shelves Thief thieves Wolf wolves Calf calves Hoof hooves Beef - beeves Wife wives Life lives Knife knives Self - selves Scarf scarfs scarves Wharf wharfs wharves
A chef came to sheriff as a plaintiff to his
chief, because he had a belief that his chief
opened his safe and stole four things a
handkerchief with a picture of giraffes on a
roof, a fife which makes a whiff while on the
reefs, a muff that he found once on a cliff and
his favourite briefs. Sheriff said that without
proofs he couldnt put cuffs on chefs chief.
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Some nouns have irregular plural forms!
child children woman women man men person people tooth - teeth goose geese foot feet mouse mice louse lice ox oxen
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PLURALS of the nouns from Latin and Greek
us i nucleus nuclei syllabus syllabi focus foci fungus - fungi cactus - cacti is es thesis theses crisis - crises on a phenomenon phenomena criterion - criteria X ices index indices appendix - appendices
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Some nouns have identical singular and plural
forms.
deer - deer
scissors - scissors
For compound words, the most important word is
usually made plural.
son-in-law / sons-in-law
board of health/boards of health
Add an s to form the plural of letters or
numbers used as a noun.
A As
100 100s
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..QUIZ TIME..
Write the plural form of each of these nouns.

• teacup 6. Department of Justice
• goose 7. daughter-n-law
• Iroquois 8. leaf
• class 9. hobby
• 5. auto 10. donkey

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• CHECK YOUR ANSWERS.
• teacups 6. Departments of Justice
• geese 7. daughters-in-law
• Iroquois 8. leaves
• classes 9. hobbies
• 5. autos 10. donkeys

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Guideline 6
Noun Quantifiers

• Words like, a few, a little, much, any, some,
  and many
• are used differently depending on whether the
  noun in the
• sentence is count or non-count.

a few
count nouns
a few bananas
a little
non-count nouns
a little flour
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(Continued)
Noun Quantifiers
many
count nouns
many chairs
much
non-count nouns
much furniture
some
non-count nouns
some furniture
count nouns
some chairs
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(Continued)
Noun Quantifiers

• Any is used in negative sentences with count and
  non-count nouns. Notice the difference in plural
  and singular verbs.

any
count nouns
There arent any chairs.
any
non-count nouns
There isnt any furniture.
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Guideline 7
Agreement with Demonstrative Adjectives

• Remember to make demonstrative adjectives (this,
  that, these, those) agree with the nouns they
  modify.

singular
plural
these room
these rooms
this rooms
this room
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Guideline 8
Nouns and of phrases

• A countable noun is always plural after an of
  phrase that shows quantity. A non-count noun is
  always singular after an of phrase.

plural
Some of the chairs are broken.
of phrases
singular
Some of the furniture is broken.
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Appendix
Irregular Plural Nouns

• woman ? women deer ? deer
• man ? men calf ? calves
• child ? children wife ? wives
• ox ? oxen life ? lives
• foot ? feet half ? halves
• tooth ? teeth knife ? knives
• goose ? geese self ? selves
• mouse ? mice wolf ? wolves
• louse ? lice thief ? thieves
• sheep ? sheep leaf ? leaves
• fish ? fish shelf ? shelves

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Appendix
Non-Countable Nouns

• accommodation garbage leisure
  vocabulary coal
• advice conduct gossip lightning
  wealth
• anger countryside
  grass luck weather
• applause courage hair luggage
  work
• assistance damage happiness
  machinery violence
• baggage dancing harm meat
  underwear
• behavior furniture help money
  travel
• bread dirt homework
  mud traffic
• cardboard education
  hospitality music
• cash evidence housework
  news
• chaos flu information
  patience
• chess food jewelry poetry
• china fruit knowledge
  scenery
• clothing fun laughter soap
• spelling strength stuff thunder

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Appendix
of phrases

• Some of the A little of the
• Many of the Much of the
• A number of the A lot of the
• One of the
• Most of the
• Half of the
• A few of the