It is good to know what a noun is to have a good start in a language.
A noun names a person, a place, a thing or an idea.
Nouns are the names of real or abstract things in our lives. A noun that gives a name to a real thing is a 'concrete' noun. 'Happiness' is an idea or concept which is why it is called an abstract noun.
We make a noun plural by adding an 's'.
Bottle - bottles, cup – cups, car – cars, door – doors, pen – pens, window – windows
For nouns that end in 'ch', 'x', 's', or /s/ sounds you must add 'es'.
Box – boxes, watch – watches, bus – buses, gas – gases
For nouns ending in 'f' or 'fe' you must change 'f' to 'v'.
Wolf – wolves, wife – wives, leaf – leaves, life – lives
Some nouns have very different plurals
Child – children, woman – women, man – men, mouse – mice
Nouns ending in vowels; a, e, i, o, u and 'y' do not have definite rules. You must learn them.
Baby – babies, toy – toys, kidney – kidneys, potato – potatoes, stereo – stereos
There are a few nouns that have the same form when they are singular or plural.
Sheep, deer, series, species
Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school
Now choose the correct form of the noun in the following:
