To understand plural nouns, let us first discuss what is a noun. It refers to the name of a person, place, or thing. There are two types of nouns – singular and plural nouns. This is only applicable to common nouns and not proper nouns because proper nouns refer to a particular place or a person.
What Are Plural Nouns?
Plural nouns are nouns that represent more than one individual, location, object, or idea. A large number of singular nouns can be created plural by adding a suffix, namely -s or -es. All singular nouns can be plural nouns but not all plural nouns can be singular nouns.
In simpler terms, plural nouns can be defined as ‘consisting of or containing more than one, or more than one kind or class. So anything that consists of more than one thing or relates to more than one person, or place is known as a plural noun.
Singular and Plural Nouns
Adding a -s to the end of most singular nouns makes them plural. The requirements for pluralization vary greatly based on the letter that a noun ends with.
Let’s try to understand it better with the help of some examples:
Adding ‘s’
- Doll – Dolls
- Pen – Pens
- Book – Books
- Dog – Dogs
- Cat – Cats
Adding ‘es’
- Gas – Gases
- Glass – Glasses
- Six – Sixes
- Tax – Taxes
- Bus – Buses
Adding ‘evs’
- Leaf – Leaves
- Knife – Knives
- Calf – Calves
- Life – Lives
- Wife – Wives
Adding ‘es’
- Mango – Mangoes
- Potato – Potatoes
- Tomato – Tomatoes
- Mosquito – Mosquitoes
- Volcano – Volcanoes
Adding ‘ies’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a consonant
- City – Cities
- Strawberry – Strawberries
- Puppy – Puppies
- Baby – Babies
- Fairy – Fairies
Some exceptions remain the same in singular and plural forms.
Tenses and Their Plural Forms
| S. No. | Tense | Plural Form |
| 1 | Simple Present Tense |
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| 2 | Present Continuous Tense |
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| 3 | Present Perfect Tense |
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| 4 | Present Perfect Continuous Tense |
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| 5 | Simple Past Tense |
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| 6 | Past Continuous Tense |
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| 7 | Past Perfect Tense |
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| 8 | Past Perfect Continuous Tense |
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| 9 | Simple Future Tense |
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| 10 | Future Continuous Tense |
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| 11 | Future Perfect Tense |
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| 12 | Future Perfect Continuous Tense |
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Rules for Plural Nouns
- To make singular nouns plural, add –s to the end.
- If a singular noun ends with –s, –ss, –sh, –ch, –x, or –z, you often add -es to the end to make it plural.
- Singular nouns ending with –s or –z require that you double the –s or –z before adding the –es for pluralization.
- For nouns that end with –f or –ef, you add an –s to make it in plural form. Must look out for exceptions, however. For some nouns ending this way, you must change the –f or –ef to –ve before adding the –s.
- For a singular noun ending with –y and if the letter before the –y is a consonant, then you will change the ending to –ies to make it in the plural form.
- For singular nouns ending in –y and the letter before the –y is a vowel, simply add an –s to make it plural.
- If the singular noun ends in –o, you usually add –es to make it plural.
- For the singular noun ending in –us, the plural ending is frequently –i.
- For the singular noun ending in –is, the plural ending is –es.
- For the singular noun ending in –on, the plural ending is usually –a.
- Some nouns don’t change at all when they’re pluralized.
Plural Nouns with Examples
- I saw three dogs in the backyard of Uncle John.
- There were many trees in the jungle.
- The house had several tables in the living room.
- I bought some new toys for my little brother.
- We need more chairs for the library.
- The young boys were throwing basketballs back and forth between bases.
- Our horses are much happier wearing their new lightweight German saddles.
- Those little pups never seem to tire of chasing one another in and out of those boxes.
- You stole my assignment ideas and didn’t give me any credit for that in school.
- Our dads are going to be upset that we stayed out all night playing video games.
- It’s not that difficult to grow trees, as long as you take good care of them and provide them with plenty of water.
- I can’t believe you allowed your kids to climb all over the seats while I was driving, it distracted me so much.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Major Difference Between Singular and Plural Nouns?
Adding a -s to the end of most singular nouns makes them plural. That means singular nouns represent a single thing or item. While Plural nouns are more than.
Give an Example of Converting a Singular Noun to a Plural Noun.
Here’s an example:
Boy – Boys
The boy without ‘s’ is the singular noun here and by adding ‘s’ it converts into a plural noun.
How to Change Singular to Plural Nouns?
By adding ‘s’ to the end, you can change the singular noun to its plural form.
