2 minute talk on the grammar topic singular and plural
Answers
Singular and Plural Nouns
Today, I picked up a few thing at the stores, and then I picked up my childs at school. Just a regular day in my lifes, like many other daies!
As the problems in that sentence demonstrate, it's important to pay attention to whether the nouns we use are singular or plural and to know how to make nouns plural the right way.
Most nouns are easily made plural, but as with a lot of things in the English language, there are a few nouns for which different rules apply.
Plural Nouns
You may know that a noun identifies a person, place, thing, or idea.
A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or idea, while a plural noun names more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
There are a few basic rules to remember when it comes to turning a singular noun into a plural noun.
1. Most singular nouns need an 's' at the end to become plural.
These are the easy ones. You can just add an 's' to alien, taco, or skateboard, for example, and you instantly have aliens, tacos, and skateboards.
There's a second rule for nouns that end with certain letters.
2. Singular nouns ending in 's', 'ss', 'sh', 'ch', 'x', or 'z' need an 'es' at the end to become plural.
So, if you have a secretive, alcoholic octopus drinking wine from a glass behind a bush, and you decide that one of those just isn't enough, you'd have two octopuses drinking from glasses behind bushes.
The same would be true for a crutch, a box, and a blintz, which would become crutches, boxes, and blintzes.
Note that some singular nouns ending in 's' or 'z' require that you double the 's' or 'z' before adding an 'es'. For example, a really bad day might involve you having not one pop quiz, but two pop quizzes.