What are nouns?

At Grammarflex, we learn grammar from the ground-up. Let’s go back to the basics: what are nouns, again? The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines the word as:

Sounds straightforward: nouns name people, places, things, ideas or qualities; like: Evan Peters (who’s both a person and an actor); Canada (a country), your iPhone (a thing); Existentialism (an idea or philosophy); and kindness (a characteristic and concept).

What are the eight parts of speech?

Nouns are one of the main parts of speech that build languages. There are 8 parts of speech altogether:

1. Nouns
2. Adverbs
3. Adjectives
4. Conjunctions
5. Prepositions
6. Pronouns
7. Interjections
8. Verbs

Plural and singular nouns

Nouns which are physical and countable come in two types: they are either plural or singular. Plural nouns mention more than one of what’s referenced. Nouns that are singular mention one of that thing.

Singular = one chair.

Plural = two chairs.

Not all nouns have singular and plural noun forms: some stay singular, where others remain plural. However, most physical objects (which are countable) use singular and plural forms.

Regular vs. irregular nouns

Just like verbs, nouns can be regular or irregular. The difference between regular and irregular nouns is straightforward: nouns that end in “-s” or “-es” are regular. Any other plural noun ending is irregular. The following chart lists regular plural nouns:

singular	plural
book	books
dog	dogs
dress	dresses
table	tables
box	boxes

When to use “s” or “es”

Most English nouns just add “s” (e.g., dogs, cats, books, tables, cups and clocks). Still, the chart above shows some add “es”.

So, how do you know when to use “s” or “es”? Words that end in –s, –ss, –x, –sh, –ch, –z and sometimes –o add “es”. Nouns that end in –z or –s will double the final consonant before adding “es”.

• dress ➜ dresses
• ash ➜ ashes
• bench ➜ benches
• tax ➜ taxes
• tomato ➜ tomatoes
• quiz ➜ quizzes
• bus ➜ busses

Irregular plural patterns

As mentioned, irregular nouns in English will end in something other than “-s” or “-es”. There are many types of irregular noun patterns; most of which are clear and easily identifiable. Still, there’s no quick way to remember them all, other than by taking the time to learn them.

What will make learning their irregular forms smoother is to understand the patterns they follow. As you’ll see from the breakdown below, the way these nouns switch from singular to plural hinges on the language of origin. For example, words inherited into Modern English from Greek, Latin, Italian, French and the Germanic languages all use their own singular and plural suffixes and inflections. English still uses many of these original noun forms today (which is pretty cool!).

German plurals (i‑umlaut and -fe → -ves)

Nouns from the Germanic languages often retain the i‑umlaut (vowel change) or change f/fe to ve/ves:

• goose = geese
• tooth = teeth
• foot = feet
• mouse = mice
• louse = lice

Other irregular Germanic patterns include nouns ending in “f” or “fe” that switch to “ve” or “ves” as a plural:

singular	plural
wife	wives
life	lives
self	selves
half	halves
knife	knives
leaf	leaves

Not all nouns ending in “f” or “fe” will switch to “ves”; there are exceptions (see words like cliff, roof or proof, which simply add “s”).

Latin & Greek nouns

Latin-derived nouns often keep their original plural forms (for instance, -us → -i):

singular	plural
cactus	cacti (or cactuses)
fungus	fungi (or funguses)
alumnus	alumni
syllabus	syllabi (or syllabuses)
radius	radii (or radiuses)
octopus	octopi (or octopuses)

Other Latin forms include -um / -on → -a (e.g., phenomenon → phenomena):

singular	plural
phenomenon	phenomena (or phenomenons)
criterion	criteria
medium	media
bacterion	bacteria
datum	data
curriculum	curricula (or curriculums)

Greek nouns that end in “-sis” switch to “-es” as a plural (analysis → analyses):

singular	plural
analysis	analyses
crisis	crises
diagnosis	diagnoses
synopsis	synopses

Singular-only & plural-only nouns

Some nouns don’t change at all between singular and plural. Water, milk, sand or gold are mass nouns (singular-only). They describe substances or masses that are not counted the same way as discrete items.

Singular-only nouns differ from nouns like moose, fish and deer, which are countable but often have no change between singular and plural (sometimes “fishes” is used when referring to multiple species). Animals also have collective noun names, such as a “herd of moose”, or a “mischief of mice”.

singular	plural
moose	moose
elk	elk
fish	fish (sometimes fishes)
deer	deer
sheep	sheep

A poem on English's idiosnycratic plurals

Linguistic Humour by anonymous

We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes; But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes. Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine, But the plural of vow is vows, not vine. I speak of my foot and show you my feet, If I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth? If the singular is this and the plural is these, Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be named kese?

Then one may be that, and three may be those, Yet the plural of hat would never be hose; We speak of a brother, and also of brethren, But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim! So our English, I think, you all will agree, Is the craziest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps To learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word, That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead; For goodness sake, don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat; They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother. And here is not a match for there, Or dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there’s dose and rose and lose, Just look them up, and goose and choose. And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart. Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start. A dreadful language? Why, man alive, I’d learned to talk it when I was five, And yet to write it, the more I tried, I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five!

Source: The English Lesson — University of Pennsylvania

In review: regular and irregular plural nouns

Grammar (RULES!)

1. Regular nouns end in -es or -s.

2. Irregular nouns end in something other than -s or -es.

3. Some nouns remain singular, whereas some stay plural.

4. Some nouns show no change between the singular and plural.

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