Singular and Plural Nouns - A Lesson With Interactive Exercises

All nouns, whether common or proper, can have either a singular or plural form. A singular noun refers to one of something, while a plural refers to more than one of something. When making the plural form of a noun, usually we add –s or –es to the end.

	Singular	Plural
	father	fathers
	sister	sisters
	room	rooms
	dish	dishes
	box	boxes
	wish	wishes

Irregular Plural Nouns

There are also things called irregular plural nouns. These are nouns that do not end in –s or –es in their plural form. Sometimes they have a different ending, or they may change their form completely.

	Singular	Plural
	child	children
	mouse	mice
	foot	feet
	tooth	teeth
	man	men
	woman	women
	goose	geese

Common Plural Noun Rules

Most common plural noun rules that you will need to remember are:

1. Ending in f or fe

For nouns ending in f, or fe, change the f to a v and add –es.


	life	lives
	self	selves
	thief	thieves

2. Ending in consonant and y

For nouns ending in a consonant and y, change the y to an i add es.


	baby	babies
	cherry	cherries
	berry	berries

3. Ending in vowel and y

For nouns ending in a vowel and a y, simply add –s.


	key	keys
	boy	boys
	toy	toys

4. The same in both

Some nouns are the same in both their singular and plural form.


	deer	deer
	fish	fish
	sheep	sheep

5. No singular form

Some nouns are the same in both their singular and plural form.


	-	clothes
	-	goods
	-	pants
	-	eyeglasses
	-	savings

6. Compound nouns

Some nouns are compound nouns, or words with more than one word in them. Plural of these words are made by adding an –s or –es to the last word.


	test tube	test tubes
	water pump	water pumps
	human being	human beings

7. Hyphenated compound nouns

In the first word in a hyphenated compound noun, add –s to the first portion of the word.


	passer-by	passers-by
	brother-in-law	brothers-in-law
	runner-up	runners-up

8. Nouns borrowed from other languages

And there are words that we borrow from other languages that have unique spelling in the plural form.


	datum	data
	phenomenon	phenomena
	medium	media

Count and Non-Count Nouns

When dealing with singular and plural noun forms, there are some other sub-forms that must be looked at. The first is the division of count and non-count nouns.

Count Nouns

Count nouns refer to people or things that can be counted- car, book, boy, student. Count nouns have both a singular and plural form and require a count certifier to make the noun singular. For example, we go from one girl (singular) to five girls (plural) with the word ‘five’ being the count certifier.


	There is one boy.	There are five boys.
	There is a book on the table.	There are many books on the table.
	The student was late to the rally.	The students were late to the rally.

Non-Count Nouns

Non-count nouns refer to things that cannot be counted because they cannot be divided into individual units or pieces- education, water, paint, music, love. Non-count nouns usually have only the singular form. You do not use a count certifier with non-count nouns because they cannot be counted as individual items or pieces.

There is a lot of hate in the world today. – you can’t say “there is five hates”
I love listening to music. - You can’t say “listening to many music”
Education is an important part of growing up. – you can’t say “ten education”
I need a glass of water. – you can’t say “20 water”

Collective Nouns

The final major form for nouns when dealing with singular and plural forms are what is called collective nouns.

Collective nouns refer to a group of people or things. The group acts as a unit; therefore, it is singular. For example, army, crowd, group, company, and organization are all collective nouns and are seen as being singular.

The food company advertises its products to teenagers.
The club meets every Thursday. It is for overeaters.
The group apologized for its insensitive comments.

To summarize:

1. Remember the different ways to make a singular noun into its plural form.
2. Remember that some nouns totally change their spelling when going from singular to plural.
3. Remember that some nouns will always be singular and some will always be plural.
4. Remember how to use count certifiers for count nouns and that non-count nouns do not need them.
5. Remember the rules for collective nouns and that they are seen as singular nouns.

Interactive Exercises:

Click: True or False

1. The word "box" is singular.	True \| False
2. The word "children" is plural.	True \| False
3. The word “dishes” is singular.	True \| False
4. The word “city” is plural.	True \| False
5. The word “feet” is plural.	True \| False
6. The word “tooth” is singular.	True \| False
7. The word “woman” is plural.	True \| False
8. The word “life” is singular.	True \| False
9. The word “berries” is plural.	True \| False
10. The word “deer” is singular.	True \| False
11. The word “sheep” is plural.	True \| False
12. The word “clothes” is singular.	True \| False
13. The word “pants” is plural.	True \| False
14. The word “runners-up” is plural.	True \| False
15. The word “data” is singular.	True \| False
16. The word “music” is plural.	True \| False
17. The word “peace” is singular.	True \| False
18. The word “health” is singular.	True \| False
19. The word “father” is plural.	True \| False
20. The word “spas” is plural.	True \| False