What is Number and Formation Rules of Plural Nouns

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What is Number and Formation Rules of Plural Nouns

Hello friends ! Today we are going to study in detail about “What is Number and Formation Rules of Plural Nouns.” In the previous notes, we knew about the Noun Rules well. Hope you have cleared all these rules

Today you are going to tell about some such rules, with the help of which you can easily do number formation. After understanding this topic, your English grammar’s knowledge will get a stronger foundation. So let’s start today’s topic : What is Number and Formation Rules of Plural Nouns

What is Number in English Grammar

Friends! You have already read about Noun and Numbers in all the small classes. Number simply means : count. That is, Noun words that indicate the number of a person or thing. We all know that a noun has two types of Numbers :

Singular Number
Plural Number

Singular : Noun word that denotes a person or thing.
Plural : Noun word that denotes more than one person or thing.

Formation Rules of Plural Nouns

Friends! Today we will know about all the rules with the help of which you can easily form singular into plural. There are some basic rules in English grammar. Keeping in mind that you can do Formation of Plurals. So let’s understand all these rules one by one :

Rule : 1.

Plural is usually formed by adding “s” to the end of the singular. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Girl	Girls	Father	Fathers
Mother	Mothers	Book	Books
Pencil	Pencils	Cat	Cats
King	Kings	Queen	Queens

Rule : 2.

The singular nouns ending in – s, sh, ch, ss, x or z etc. are formed plurals by adding “es” after them. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Bus	Buses	Watch	Watches
Match	Matches	Dish	Dishes
Class	Classes	Box	Boxes
Fox	Foxes	Buzz	Buzzes

Rule : 3.

A. When a singular noun ends with “y” and is preceded by a Consonant, is formed plurals by adding “ies” in place of “y”. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Baby	Babies	Lady	Ladies
Army	Armies	City	Cities
Duty	Duties	Family	Families
Country	Countries	Story	Stories

B. When a singular noun ends with “y” and is preceded by a Vowel, is formed plurals by adding only “s” after “y”. like

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Boy	Boys	Monkey	Monkeys
Day	Days	Donkey	Donkeys
Key	Keys	Journey	Journeys
Toy	Toys	Valley	Valleys

Rule : 4.

A. When a singular noun ends with “o” and is preceded by a Consonant, is formed plurals by adding “es” in place of “o”. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Tomato	Tomatoes	Hero	Heroes
Potato	Potatoes	Buffalo	Buffaloes
Mango	Mangoes	Motto	Mottoes
Echo	Echoes	Volcano	Volcanoes

There can be some exceptions to this rule which you must take care of :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Piano	Pianos	Photo	Photos

B. When a singular noun ends with “oo” or “io”, is formed plurals by adding only “s” after them. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Ratio	Ratios	Studio	Studios
Cuckoo	Cuckoos	Bamboo	Bamboos

Rule : 5.

A. When a singular noun ends with “f” or “fe”, is formed plurals by adding “ves” in place of “f” or “fe”. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Knife	Knives	Half	Halves
Wife	Wives	Thief	Thieves
Life	Lives	Wolf	Wolves
Leaf	Leaves	Calf	Calves

B. When a singular noun ends with “f”, “ff” or “fe”, is formed plurals by adding only “s” after them. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Chief	Chiefs	Roof	Roofs
Brief	Briefs	Proof	Proofs
Gulf	Gulfs	Belief	Beliefs
Cliff	Cliffs	Strife	Strifes

Rule : 6.

The plural is also changed by changing the vowel between some singular nouns. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Man	Men	Woman	Women
Foot	Feet	Tooth	Teeth

Rule : 7.

A. To make a compound word plural, its principle word is changed into plural. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Sister-in-law	Sisters-in-law	Daughter-in-law	Daughters-in-law
Watch-man	Watch-men	Commander-in-chief	Commanders-in-chief
Boy-friend	Boy-friends	Girl-friend	Girl-friends
Major-general	Major-generals	Chief-minister	Chief-ministers

B. But, to make the plural of some compound words, both its parts are changed into plurals. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Man-servant	Men-servants	Lord-justice	Lords-justices
Woman-doctor	Women-doctors	Lord-lieutenant	Lords-lieutenants

Rule : 8.

In some cases the plural is also formed by adding “en” to singular nouns. like :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Ox	Oxen	Child	Children

Rule : 9.

The method of pluralizing some foreign words is quite different. Which you can understand from the table below :

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Basis	Bases	Crisis	Crises
Medium	Media	Premium	Premia
Radius	Radii	Syllabus	Syllabi
Memorandum	Memoranda	Phenomenon	Phenomena

Rule : 10.

There are also some noun words which have two plurals with different meanings. like :

Singular	Plural	Plural
Brother	Brothers – भाई	Brethren – एक ही समाज के सदस्य
Genius	Geniuses – प्रतिभाशाली	Genii – पिशाच
Index	Indices – सूचकांक	Indexes – सूची

Thus friends! Today you must have understood this topic of “What is Number and Formation Rules of Plural Nouns”. These are very easy rules which are not difficult to understand and remember. But their incomplete information can definitely make it difficult for you. Therefore, you are requested to learn them.

A Request :

So you saw friends! How easy it is to understand about “What is Number and Formation Rules of Plural Nouns.” You keep all these rules in your mind so that you do not have any problem in numbers formation.

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