A singular noun has one number while a plural noun has more than one number. There are about six ways of forming plural nouns. These ways are discussed below.
– By adding "s" or "es" to the singular nouns
Examples:
Singular Plural
Clock clooks
Book books
Train trains
Table tables
Cargo cargoes
Mango mangoes
Glass glasses
Please note the following plural nouns ending with 'o':
Singular Plural
Manifesto manifestos
Motto mottos
Buffalo buffalos
Commando commandos
Piano pianos
Note: Some nouns that end with letters "O", " Ch", "S" etc. form their plural by the additional "es".
– By adding " en", or "ren" to the singular nouns
Singular Plural
Child children
Ox oxen
Brother brethren
– By the changing of a vowel of the singular nouns
Singular Plural
Tooth teeth
Louse lice
Mouse mice
Man men
Foot feet
Goose geese
– By changing letter "y" in the nouns to "ies"
Singular Plural
Lady ladies
Body bodies
Fly. flies
Duty duties
Army armies
Reply replies
– By changing "f" to "ves"
Singular Plural
Thief thieves
Leaf leaves
Life lives
Knife knives
Wolf wolves
Elf elves
Note: 'chief' does not become 'chieves'. You just simply add 's'- 'chiefs'.
'Handkerchief', 'dwarf', 'scarf', and 'hoof' can become plural either by adding 's' or 'ves'.
– By not changing the singular nouns (problematic nouns)
There are some nouns that don't take "s", " es", or anything to form their plural forms. Their spellings remain the same for both singular and plural forms. I call such nouns the problematic nouns. Examples:
Singular Plural
Deer deer
*Fish fish(es)
Sheep sheep
Furniture furniture
Traffic traffic
*Staff staff
Luggage luggage (British)
Baggage baggage (American)
*Property property
Information information
Equipment equipment
*Damage damage
Environment environment
Note this: Bag and baggage (not bags and baggage nor bags and baggages)
Note that some of the words listed above can takes 's' in some specific cases.
For instance:
The members of clergy are respected.
* 'Fish' will be 'fishes' if we are referring to different species/types, such as tilapia fish, cat fish, electric fish, etc. For example: my mother bought ten tilapia fish from the market today; last week, she bought five fishes which included: tilapia, electric and cat.
* 'Clergy' will be clergies if we refer to different religions or denominations.
* 'Property' can be 'properties' if we mean 'characteristics' or 'features'. In legal parlance, we can also have properties.
* 'Damage' can be used in two forms. When we use it to mean demolition or destruction, note that the plural form does not take "es".
Example:
– The damages done by the flood are unspeakable. (Wrong)
– The damage done by the flood are unspeakable. (Correct)
The word will only take 'es':
When used as third person singular verb such as:
– A baby damages fragile objects while growing up.
When used to mean a certain amount of money ordered by a law court to be paid to somebody for an offence committed.
– Some damages were paid to the family of the victims.
Note that when we want to quantify some of the nouns in the table above, we use 'piece'. For instance:
– A piece of equipment
– Two pieces of equipment
– A piece of furniture
– Ten pieces of furniture.
We can also use 'member' for some of the nouns in the table above. For instance:
– The members of the clergy are respected.
– A member of staff.
– Five members of staff.
Note that we can also use 'staffers', but in American English. We can add 's' to 'staff' when we mean staff members of different groups or organizations. For instance:
– All the schools and their staffs were well represented at the meeting.
– All the law makers and their staffs are corrupt.
In the next article we are going to write about possessive case of Nouns.
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