Nouns – plural, countable & uncountable

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CREATING PLURAL NOUNS

COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS 

CREATING PLURAL NOUNS

Most nouns in English are countable nouns. They appear in singular as well as in plural form:

cat – cats
watch – watches

Before singular nouns we can put indefinite article a/an or definite the:

a cat
the watch

Plural nouns we usually create by adding an ending -s:

book – books
cup – cups
eye – eyes

To the nouns ending -s, -ss, -x, -ch, -sh we add the ending -es:

bus – buses
kiss – kisses
box – boxes
watch – watches
bush – bushes

We also add -es to most of nouns ending -o:

potato – potatoes
tomato – tomatoes

But sometimes we should add the ending -os to the noun ending -o:

kilo – kilos
radio – radios
photo – photosNouns ending with consonant + -y, the final -y change for -i + -es:

story – stories
country – countries
baby – babies
lady – ladies

COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS 

Nouns in English can be countable or uncountable. Uncountable nouns do not have a plural.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW ABOUT UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS?

• do not have plural and verb appearing after is always singular:

This water is cold.
Time is money

• cannot be preceded by article a/an; if we want to define quantity then some, any or much shall be used:

We don’t have much time.
There is some milk in the fridge.

• can be used with pronouns such as this, that, my, your etc., and with the definite article the:

This coffee is really good.
My wine tastes delicious.

• cannot be preceded by numerals; its exact quantity can be expressed by using other appellatives:

two kilos of sugar
eight litres of petrol
a cup of tea