PLURALS Подготовила преподаватель английского языка ГУО «Пинковичская средняя школа имени Якуба Коласа» Пинского района, Брестской области, Лящук Елена Геннадьевна
+s an apple-apples
+ES(if nouns ending in –s,-ss, -ch,-x,-o) a tomato-tomatoes
BUT: radio-radios piano-pianos photo-photos rhino-rhinos hippo-hippos video-videos
Nouns ending in a vowel+Y take –s in the plural a toy-toys
Nouns ending in consonant+y, drop the –y and take –ies in the plural a strawberry-strawberries y-i+es
Nouns ending in –f or –fe, drop the f or fe and take –ves in the plural a leaf-leaves -f/-fe-v+es
BUT: chiefs roofs safes cliffs beliefs
IRREGULAR PLURALS: a man-men a woman-women a child-children a foot-feet a tooth-teeth a goose-geese a mouse-mice a louse-lice an ox-oxen
SOME NOUNS HAVE THE SAME singular and plural forms: a fish-fish a deer-deer a sheep-sheep a trout-trout a swine-swine an aircraft-aircraft a means-means
Some words which come from foreign languages have special plurals: Analysis-analyses Appendix-appendices/appendixes Bacterium-bacteria Basis-bases Cactus-cacti/cactuses Crisis-crises Criterion-criteria Diagnosis-diagnoses Formula-formulae/formulas Fungus-fungi/funguses Hypothesis-hypotheses Medium-media/mediums Phenomenon-phenomena
Noun+preposition+noun, we add –s to the first noun a mother-in-law- mothers-in-law
If the first word is man or woman a woman-doctor- women-doctors
Noun+adverb, we add –s to the first word passer-by-passers-by
If there is no noun-stem in the compound –s is added to the last element Forget-me-not-forget-me-nots
Uncountable nouns(are used in singular):
Always plural: people arms cattle ashes trousers barracks jeans clothes shorts congratulations shoes outskirts gloves police pajamas riches tights stairs earrings surroundings scissors wages pliers goods
A group of english nouns that can be used as countable or uncountable with a difference in meaning:
Collective nouns that can be both singular and plural: Army Audience Class Committee Company Crew Crowd Government Group Faculty Family
TEam Is singular when it is regarded as one unit: Our team is winning.
Russian nouns that are always plural in russian but are singular and plural in English.