grammar spot – english made easy: plurals

plurals

nouns (person, place, or thing) are either singular (one) or plural (two or more)

cup / cups
actor / actors
website / websites
toothbrush / toothbrushes
hunch / hunches
reply / replies
goldfish / goldfish
boundary / boundaries
afterthought / afterthoughts
linguistics / linguistics

how do we form them?

Add “S” to most normal nouns
pig, pigs /house, houses / bottle, bottles / teacher, teachers / negotiation, negotiations

Add ES to words ending with x, s, ss, ch, sh
box, boxes / bus, buses / grass, grasses / church, churches / bush, bushes

change y to I and add ES to words ending with a consonant
+ y fly, flies /city, cities / lady, ladies

change f to V and add ES for words ending in f or fe
wolf, wolves / wife, wives / life, lives / knife, knives

some nouns have the same singular and plural form
salmon, sheep, fish, offspring, aircraft

some nouns are always plural things that come in pairs
glasses, scissors, trousers

group nouns –aggregates
thanks, bread, water, information, police

and don’t forget the irregulars
man, men / woman, women / tooth, teeth / crisis, crises / potato, potatoes / foot, feet

easy peasy!

take a plurals quiz http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/quiz/en16plur-e3-quiz

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www.makaitalia.com