Nouns are basically the words or phrases used to refer to a class of people or any object. It can be anything, be it an actual living being or an imagination. Nouns can be of different types and can be both singular and plural.
Now, we are used to using nouns in our everyday speech. However, people often find it difficult to understand the concept of plural nouns, which is a little complicated than singular nouns.
Today, we will discuss plural nouns and the rules that come along with them. Because it might seem simple, but there are some basics that one cannot escape.
What are plural nouns?
When we say nouns, we generally refer to a thing or a person. Depending on the situation, we either refer to a single thing or things. The latter is known to be plural nouns.
Plural nouns are nouns that are more than just one. It can be two or more things or persons at the same time.
For example;
- Umbrella- singular
- Umbrellas- plural
Umbrella is one singular noun. When we say umbrellas, we are referring to two or more of them. That is a plural noun.
Some more examples of plural nouns are;
- Cars
- Bikes
- Chocolates
- Boys
- Birds
- Cows
Basic rule of using plural nouns
How plural nouns are used is very simple, depending on the type of the noun.
Generally, to make a noun plural, we need to add the letter ”s” to the end of the noun.
For example;
Girl - Girls
A “girl” is singular, and “girls” is plural. Here we are referring to more than one girl.
These are regular nouns. But there are other rules that we need to follow as well;
If the noun ends with the letter ”y”, we need to add ”ies” at the end of the noun, excluding the ”y”.
For example;
copy - copies
If the noun ends with the letter ”f” or ”fe”, we need to add ”ves” at the end of the noun, excluding the ”f” or ”fe”.
For example;
knife - knives, wolf - wolves
And if the noun ends with ”y” and the letter before the final letter is a vowel, we will simply add ”s” and not ”ies”.
For example;
boy - boys
If the noun ends with ”o”, generally, we add ”es” to the end of the noun.
For example;
potato - potatoes
These are the basic rules for regular nouns. However, there can be several limitations and exceptions, and also, there are more to add “on” to it.
But with irregular nouns, making them plural can be a little tricky. These are words that cannot be modified with “s” or “es”. They come with proper pluralization that we need to remember.
For example;
child - children, person - people, tooth - teeth
Using plural nouns in a sentence
While using a plural noun in a sentence, we need to keep in mind the type of noun we are using.
If it is a countable noun, then it can be pluralized. Countable nouns can be plural, such as gifts, clothes, boxes, etc.
If a noun is an uncountable noun, then it can never be pluralized. Noncount nouns can never be plural in form, such as salt, water, sugar, etc.
These are the basic rules that we need to understand in order to learn plural nouns. Plural nouns can seem easy, but they can get complicated if one is not aware of these facts.