There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms.
| Singular | Plural |
| fish | fish |
| sheep | sheep |
| barracks | barracks |
| foot | feet |
| tooth | teeth |
| goose | geese |
| tooth | teeth |
| goose | geese |
| child | children |
| man | men |
| woman | women |
| person | people |
| mouse | mice |
Plurals formed in this way are sometimes called irregular plurals or mutated (or mutating) plurals.
- more than one child = children
- more than one woman = women
- more than one man = men
- more than one person = people
- more than one goose = geese
- more than one mouse = mice
- more than one barracks = barracks
- more than one deer = deer
Other irregular plural forms include the following:
Some foreign nouns retain their plural. (Note that some of them adapted the s of the English plural form!)
| Singular | Foreign plural | English plural |
| alga | algae | |
| amoeba | amoebae | amoebas |
| antenna | antennae | antennas |
| formula | formulae | formulas |
| larva | larvae | |
| nebula | nebulae | nebulas |
| vertebra | vertebrae |
Nouns ending in us get a, i or the s of the English plural:
| Singular | Foreign plural | English plural |
| corpus | corpora | |
| genus | genera | |
| alumnus | alumni | |
| bacillus | bacilli | |
| cactus | cacti | cactuses |
| focus | foci | |
| fungus | fungi | funguses |
| nucleus | nuclei | |
| octopus | octopi | octopuses |
| radius | radii | |
| stimulus | stimuli | |
| syllabus | syllabi | syllabuses |
| terminus | termini |
Nouns ending in um get a, i or the s of the English plural:
| Singular | Foreign plural | English plural |
| addendum | addenda | |
| bacterium | bacteria | |
| curriculum | curricula | curriculums |
| datum | data | |
| erratum | errata | |
| medium | media | |
| memorandum | memoranda | memorandums |
| ovum | ova | |
| stratum | strata | |
| symposium | symposia | symposiums |
Nouns ending in ex or ix get ices or get the s of the English plural:
| Singular | Foreign plural | English plural |
| apex | apices | apexes |
| appendix | appendices | appendixes |
| cervix | cervices | cervixes |
| index | indices | indexes |
| matrix | matrices | matrixes |
| vortex | vortices |
Nouns ending in is becoming es in plural:
| Singular | Plural form |
| analysis | analyses |
| axis | axes |
| basis | bases |
| crisis | crises |
| diagnosis | diagnoses |
| emphasis | emphases |
| hypothesis | hypotheses |
| neurosis | neuroses |
| oasis | oases |
| parenthesis | parentheses |
| synopsis | synopses |
| thesis | theses |
Nouns ending in -on becoming -a:
| singular | plural |
| criterion | criteria |
| phenomenon | phenomena |
| automaton | automata |
Nouns that are always singular:
A handful of nouns appear to be plural in form but take a singular verb:
- The news is bad.
- Gymnastics is fun to watch.
- Economics/mathematics/statistics is said to be difficult.
Some nouns never take the s of the plural and are always singular:
- your luggage / baggage is so heavy
- I'd like to buy new furniture for the house
- you can find more informationin our website.
Different types of nouns
There are different types of nouns:
1. An abstract noun names an idea, event, quality, or concept (freedom, love, courage...) Concrete nouns name something recognizable through the sense (table, dog, house...)
2. Animate nouns refer to a person, animal, or other creature (man, elephant, chicken...) Aninanimate nounrefers to a material object (stone, wood, table...)
3. A collective noun describes a group of things or people as a unit (family, flock, audience...)
4. Common noun is the name of a group of similar things (table, book, window...) Proper nouns, however, refer to the name of a single person, place or thing (John, Joseph, London...)
5. Compound nouns refer to two or more nouns combined to form a single noun (sister-in-law, schoolboy, fruit juice)
6. Countable (or count) nouns have a singular and a plural form. In plural, these nouns can be used with a number- they can be counted. (friends, chairs, houses, boys...) Uncountable (or non count) nouns, however, can only be used in singular. They can't be counted. (money, bread, water, coffee...)
THERE IS - THERE ARE
We use there is and there are to say that something exists.
Positive Sentences
We use there is for singular and there are for plural.
- There isone table in the classroom.
- There are three chairs in the classroom.
- There is a spider in the bath.
- There are many people at the bus stop.
We also use There is with uncountable nouns:
- There is milk in the fridge.
- There is some sugar on the table.
- There is ice cream on your shirt.
Contractions
The contraction of there is is there's.
- There's a good song on the radio.
- There's only one chocolate left in the box.
You cannot contract there are.
- There are nine cats on the roof.
- There areonly five weeks until my birthday.
Negative Form
The negative is formed by putting not after is or are:
- There is not a horse in the field.
- There are not eight children in the school.
- There is not a tree in the garden.
- There are not two elephants in the zoo.
We almost always use contractions when speaking.
The Negative contractions are:
- There's not = There isn't
- There are not = There aren't
There aren't with ANY
When we want to indicate that a zero quantity of something exists we use there aren't any.
- There aren't any people at the party.
- There aren't any trees in my street.
We also use this structure with uncountablenouns:
- There isn't any water in the swimming pool.
- There isn't any sugar in my coffee.
Questions
To form a question we place is / are in front of there.
Again we use any with plural questions or those which use uncountable nouns.
We also use there is / are in short answers.
- Is there a dog in the supermarket? - No, there isn't.
- Are thereany dogs in the park? - Yes, there are.
- Is therea security guard in the shop? - Yes, there is.
- Are there any polar bears in Antarctica? - No, there aren't.
- Is thereany ice-cream in the freezer? - Yes, there is.
How Many with Are There
If we want to find out the number of objects that exist we use How many in the following form:
How many + plural noun + are there (+ complement).
- How manydogs are there in the park?
- How manystudents are there in your class?
- How manycountries are there in South America?
- How many Star Wars films are there?
MUCH, MANY – A LITTLE, A FEW
1. When do we use much and when many?
- much: uncountable nouns (milk, marmalade, money, time etc.)
- many: countable nouns (bottles of milk, jars of marmalade, dollars, minutes etc.)
Examples:
- How much money have you got?
- How many dollars have you got?
In informal English these questions are often answered with a lot of, lots of. There is no much difference between the two phrases.
2. When do we use a little/little and when a few/few?
- a little: non countable nouns (milk, marmalade, money, time etc.)
- a few: countable nouns (bottles of milk, jars of marmalade, dollars, minutes etc.)
Examples:
- He has a little money left.
- He has a few dollars left.
We use few and little without the article a to point out a more negative meaning.
Examples: