Plurals and Concord (Upper Form)

Plurals

Formation of the Plural - Regular Nouns

• For regular nouns, we add the suffix -s to their singular forms.

          Examples:
          boy       -> boys
          cow      -> cows
          friend   -> friends
          place    -> places

• For regular nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -tch or -x, we add -es to their singular forms.

          Examples:
          class    -> classes
          brush   -> brushes
          branch -> branches
          stretch -> stretches
          box      -> boxes

• Most nouns ending in -o also form their plurals when -es is added to their singular form.

          Examples:
          mango -> mangoes
          potato  -> potatoes
          hero    -> heroes

• For some nouns ending in -o, we add only -s.

          Examples:
          piano   -> pianos
         dynamo -> dynamos
          ratio     -> ratios

• Nouns ending in -y after a consonant from their plurals when the -y is changed to -i and -es is added.

         Examples:
         baby    -> babies
         city     -> cities

• Nouns ending in -f or -fe form their plurals by dropping the -f or -fe and -ves is added.

         Examples:
         knife   -> knives
         leaf     -> leaves
         life     -> lives
         self    -> selves

Formation of the Plural - Irregular Nouns

• There are some irregular nouns which are changed to the plural by changing the vowels of their singular forms:

          Examples: 
louse -> lice                   foot -> feet
                           
 mouse -> mice               tooth -> teeth
                           
goose -> geese               crisis -> crises
                          
  woman -> women          criterion -> criteria

• For some nouns, -en or -ren is added.

          Examples : ox -> oxen             child -> children

• Some nouns have the same singular and plural forms.

          Examples: sheep, deer, series, species, tongs, scissors, spectacles, trousers, shorts

• Some nouns look like they are in the plural form, but they are actually singular.

          Examples: news, measles, mathematics, physics, billiards

• Some collective nouns are used only as plurals.

          Examples: poultry, cattle, vermin, people

• Abstract words and names of substances do not have plural forms.

          Examples: hope, kindness, copper, wood, wax

• Plurals for compound nouns are formed by adding -s to the principal noun.

          Examples: son-in-law -> sons-in-law

                            passer-by -> passers-by

                            stepson -> stepsons

Concord (Subject-Verb Agreement)

Singular-Singular

A singular subject (noun) takes a singular verb. Study the examples in the table below.

• If the subject contains more than one noun, the verb should agree in number with the main noun, and not necessarily the noun nearest to it.

         Examples: His knowledge of History and Geography is excellent.
                           Of the three students, Jerry is the shortest.

• Two or more singular subjects connected by or, nor, either and neither are followed by singular verbs.

          Examples: Either the cat or the dog has broken the pot.
                            Neither of the two men is very strong.

• The subject that comes after each and every must be singular and have singular verbs.

          Example: Every boy and girl was given a packet of biscuits.

Plural-Singular
Some words with plural forms, but singular in meaning, take singular verbs.
Examples: No news is good news.
                 Mathematics is a subject I don't like.

Plural-Plural

A plural subject (noun) is followed by a plural verb.

• There are some special cases where collective nouns are concerned. Look at the example below.

         The committee {is / are} divided on that point. (Both can be used)

                                                       

Exercise 1

Underline all the plural nouns that you can find in the text given below.

Last year, a grand exhibition was held in our town. My friends and I went to see it one evening.

Our first impression on entering the grounds was that the whole place looked like a funfair. There were countless lights and decorations in bright, gray colours. People were dressed in their best holiday clothes, moving around and stopping to admire the things displayed in the stalls. Goods like musical instruments, clothes and toys were on sale.

The Children's Corner was crowded with boys and girls. They were carrying balloons, eating cotton candy or playing on the wooden horses, merry-go-round or Ferris wheel. Even the grown-ups were having a wonderful time.

Exercise 2

Fill in the blanks with the plural form of the words given in brackets where necessary.

One evening, I heard loud (1) _______________ (siren) go past my house. I ran out and joined a large crowd a few (2) _______________ (street) away.

There was a house on fire. Huge (3) _______________ (flame) were coming out from every window and thick, black (4) ______________ (smoke) was spreading all around. Three (5) _______________ (fire engine) and several (6) ______________ (fireman) were busy dousing the building with (7) _______________ (water) but there was no effect on the (8) _______________ (fire).

Tall, red (9) _______________ (ladder) were placed against the house anf firemen climbed up to the roof with (10) _______________ (hose) in their (11) _______________ (hand).

Nouns (Upper Form)

Nouns
There are two types of nouns: Concrete and Abstract

Concrete Nouns

• These are nouns referring to physical objects and substances such things, animals and people.
• There are two types of concrete nouns: Common Nouns and Proper Nouns
• Proper nouns is the opening passage include:

          Richard Rhodes - name of person
          Hiroshima.         - name of a place
NOTE: Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.

• A few examples of common nouns in the opening passage are: cloud, bomb, genius, atoms
• Common nouns may be collective nouns where a number of persons, things or animals are taken together and referred to as a whole. For example:

                Crowd, mob, nation, world, army, family => a group of people
                Herd, flock => a group of animals
                Fleet, packet => a group of things
NOTE: A common noun is a name given to every person or thing of the same class or kind.

Abstract Nouns

• These refer to qualities (kindness, strength, freedom); actions and events (explosion, research, combination); states (peace, hope, belief) and feelings (love, hate).
• Abstract nouns are formed from:

              (i) Adjectives
                  Examples: kind -> kindness
                                    honest -> honesty
             (ii) Verbs
                   Examples: grow -> growth
                                     move -> movement
            (iii) Common Nouns
                   Examples: child -> childhood
                                     friend -> friendship


Countable and Uncountable Nouns

• Countable nouns are things which CAN be counted, e.g. pen, book, boy, cat, durian.
• Uncountable nouns are things which CANNOT be counted, e.g. milk, sugar, gold, honesty. They usually denote substances and abstract things.
• Countable nouns may be singular or plural. A, an, the or a number is used before a countable noun to show whether it is singular or plural.

Examples:
SINGULAR COUNTABLES

• a doll
• the doll
• an apple
• the apple

PLURAL COUNTABLES

• two dolls
• the dolls
• three apples
• the apples

• Often, plural countables do not have articles before them.

          Examples: Roses are red.

                            Violets are blue.

• Only common nouns are preceded by articles. Articles should not appear before proper nouns.

          Examples: Sarina, Milo, Malaysia, Mount Kinabalu

• But we can say:

             a/the Malaysian                        (a race in general)

            the Central Market                    (important buildings)

            The President                            (top positions)

            the United States of America    (countries indicating a group)

            the Olympic Games                  (special events)

• Uncountable nouns cannot have a or an before them. They are followed by singular verbs.

          Example: Water is good for health.

• Words that show quantity (some, much, a little) may precede uncountable common nouns.

          Example: Some salt is added to the curry.

• Sometimes, these uncountable nouns are preceded by nouns such as ‘kilogramme’, ‘packet’, etc.

         Examples: a kilogramme of salt, a packet of curry powder

• Abstract nouns, such as joy, hope, happiness and love, cannot be measured.

EXERCISE

The picture below shows a tuition class going on. Write a paragraph of about 100 words about the picture using the nouns given.