Countable nouns.
In English, there are two kinds of noun: countable nouns and uncountable nouns.
COUNTABLE NOUNS IN ENGLISH: are things that we can count and have both a singular and plural form.
one dog, two dogs
an apple, two apples
one boy and one girl, two boys and three girls
a film, several films
a man, a few men
one person, two people
this door, these doors
that house, those houses
The plural of countable nouns is generally indicated by adding ‘S’ to the end of word.
chair = chairs
flower = flowers
week = weeks
window = windows
Nouns that finish with a vowel + ‘Y’ (AY, EY, OY) take the ‘S’ to indicate the plural.
boy = boys
day = days
key = keys
play = plays
However, nouns that finish with a consonant + ‘Y’ (BY, KY, RY, DY, LY) take ‘IES’ to indicate the plural.
in this case the ‘Y’ is removed and replaced with an ‘I’
baby = babies
fairy = fairies
fly = flies
lady = ladies
sky = skies
For nouns that finish with a sibilant ‘S’, ‘SS’, ‘SH’, ‘CH’, ‘X’, ‘Z’ the plural is indicated with ‘ES’.
bus = buses
dish = dishes
church = churches
box = boxes
quiz = quizzes (N.B. double ‘Z’)
Most nouns that finish with ‘F’ / ‘FE’ take ‘S’.
cliff = cliffs
handkerchief = handkerchiefs
roof = roofs
safe = safes
However, some nouns that finish with ‘F’ / ‘FE’ take ‘VES’.
wife = wives
life = lives
knife = knives
thief = thieves
shelf = shelves
self = selves
half = halves
scarf = scarves
Wolf = wolves
We add ‘S’ to nouns that finish with ‘O’ if they are foreign words, musical words or words ending in 2 vowels.
piano = pianos
dynamo = dynamos
avocado = avocados
zoo = zoos
N.B. EXCEPTIONS ADD ‘ES’
echo = echoes
embargo = embargoes
tomato = tomatoes
potato = potatoes
hero = heroes
volcano = volcanoes
tornado = tornadoes
torpedo = torpedoes
veto = vetoes
domino = dominoes
Please note:
The final S is pronounced /s/ when it is preceded by an unvoiced consonant sound ( k, p, t, ck, ph, and unvoiced th /θ/ );
Books /s/ Cats /s/ Clocks /s/ Months /s/
it is pronounced /z/ when it is preceded by a voiced consonant sound (b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v and voiced th /ð/ and the vowel o)
Flags /z/ Roads /z/ Balls /z/ Goes /z/
It is pronounced /iz/ when the nuon finishes with s, ss, sh, ch, x, z, ce, se, ge
Buses /iz/ Churches /iz/ Faces /iz/ Judges /iz/
Some plurals are irregular.
man = men
woman = women
child = children
ox = oxen
person = people
tooth = teeth
goose = geese
foot = feet
louse = lice
mouse = mice
die = dice
penny = pence, Pennies (coins)
Many compound nouns that end with an irregular plural follow the same pattern.
policeman = policemen
business woman = business women
schoolchild = schoolchildren
country-mouse = country-mice
Some plurals are the same as the singluar and use both the plural and singular verb
sheep (is)
sheep (are)
deer (is)
deer (are)
species (is)
species (are)
Some nouns are always used in the plural form (they), do not have a singular form, and are used with the verb form used for the third person plural (are/have/were etc.).
police
jeans
pants
clothes
goods
glasses
shorts
scissors
cattle
Some plurals of Greek and latin origin.
bacterium = bacteria
criterion = criteria
curriculum = curricula
datum = data
genus = genera
medium = media
memorandum = memoranda
phenomenon = phenomena
stratum = strata
antenna = antennae/antennas
formula = formulae/formulas
larva = larvae
nebula = nebulae
vertebra = vertebrae
vita = vitae
alumnus = alumni
cactus = cacti/cactuses
focus = foci/focuses
fungus = fungi/funguses
nucleus = nuclei
radius = radii
stimulus = stimuli
axis = axes
analysis = analyses
basis = bases
crisis = crises
diagnosis = diagnoses
ellipsis = ellipses
hypothesis = hypotheses
oasis = oases
paralysis = paralyses
parenthesis = parentheses
synthesis = syntheses
synopsis = synopses
thesis = theses
appendix = appendices
index = indexes
matrix = matrices/matrixes
To ask about quantity we use ‘How many…?
How many people are there in the shop?
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