NOUNS (e.g.: thing, dog, love, table, woman, man, etc.)

English Nouns

Nouns are words that name people, places, things, and ideas.

Examples:

Type	Examples
People	teacher, sister, doctor
Places	Canada, school, city
Things	book, computer, table
Ideas	love, happiness, freedom

Learning nouns is an important part of building your English vocabulary. The more nouns you know, the easier it is to understand and communicate in English.

When learning a noun, try to learn:

• its spelling

• its meaning

• its plural form

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Singular and Plural Nouns

A noun can be singular (one) or plural (more than one).

Examples:

• one house

• two houses

Most nouns form the plural by adding -s:

Singular	Plural
book	books
car	cars
house	houses
dog	dogs

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Nouns Ending in -s, -x, -z, -ch, and -sh

Add -es to form the plural:

Singular	Plural
bus	buses
box	boxes
church	churches
dish	dishes
quiz	quizzes

Examples:

• one bus, two buses

• one church, two churches

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Nouns Ending in Consonant + y

Change y to ies:

Singular	Plural
baby	babies
city	cities
country	countries

Examples:

• one baby, two babies

• one city, two cities

Compare:

• boy → boys

• day → days

When there is a vowel before y, simply add -s.

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Nouns Ending in Consonant + o

Many nouns ending in -o add -es:

Singular	Plural
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes

Examples:

• one potato, two potatoes

• one tomato, two tomatoes

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Irregular Plurals

Some common nouns form the plural by changing a vowel or using a special form.

Singular	Plural
man	men
woman	women
child	children
foot	feet
tooth	teeth

Examples:

• one woman, two women

• one child, three children

These forms must be memorized.

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Nouns with the Same Singular and Plural Form

A few nouns do not change in the plural.

Singular	Plural
sheep	sheep
deer	deer
fish*	fish

Examples:

• one sheep, two sheep

• one deer, three deer

Most animal names form the plural normally:

• dogs

• cats

• horses

• cows

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Gender and Nouns

Unlike many languages such as French or Spanish, English nouns do not have grammatical gender.

For example:

• book is not masculine or feminine.

• table is not masculine or feminine.

However, English pronouns often reflect biological gender:

• The boy ... he

• The girl ... she

Examples:

• Mary loves her brother.

• John loves his sister.

Notice that her refers to a female person and his refers to a male person.

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Special Nouns

Some nouns are always singular:

• advice

• research

• furniture

• information

Examples:

• This furniture is beautiful.

• The research is interesting.

• Your advice was helpful.

Common ESL errors:

• These furnitures are beautiful. ❌

• This furniture is beautiful. ✅

• Many advices. ❌

• Much advice. ✅

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Nouns That Are Always Plural

Some nouns are normally plural:

• scissors

• pants

• jeans

• glasses

Examples:

• My scissors are on the table.

• These pants are too large.

Common ESL error:

• My pant is new. ❌

• My pants are new. ✅

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Common ESL Errors

Forgetting the plural ending

• two book ❌

• two books ✅

Using a singular verb with a plural noun

• The dogs is barking. ❌

• The dogs are barking. ✅

Adding -s to uncountable nouns

• many informations ❌

• a lot of information ✅

• three advices ❌

• three pieces of advice ✅

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Quick Rule

Most nouns form the plural with -s:

• book → books

• car → cars

Some nouns have special plural forms:

• man → men

• woman → women

• child → children

Remember:

• advice, research, furniture, information are usually singular.

• scissors, pants, jeans, glasses are usually plural.

Learning common nouns and their plural forms will greatly improve your English.