Grade 5 English Nouns – Singular And Plural Nouns Notes
English Notes: Nouns — Singular and Plural Nouns
A noun names a person, place, animal, thing or idea. Singular means one. Plural means more than one. These notes help you change nouns from singular to plural.
Quick rule: Numbers
Use singular with 1 (one) and plural with other numbers: one book, two books, five matatus 🚍.
1. Regular plurals
- Most nouns: add -s → cat → cats 🐱
- Nouns ending in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x or -z: add -es → bus → buses, box → boxes 📦
2. Nouns ending in -y
- If a consonant comes before -y, change y to i and add -es:
baby → babies - If a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) comes before -y, just add -s:
boy → boys
3. Nouns ending in -f or -fe
Often change -f / -fe to -ves → leaf → leaves, knife → knives. (Some are exceptions: roof → roofs.)
4. Irregular plurals (learn these)
- man → men, woman → women
- child → children
- tooth → teeth, foot → feet
- mouse → mice
- person → people
5. Same in singular and plural
Some words do not change: sheep → sheep, fish → fish (but "fishes" is used when talking about different kinds of fish).
6. Uncountable (no plural)
Words like water, rice, sugar are not counted with -s. We say some water, not "waters" (unless you mean different bodies of water).
7. Compound nouns
For words made of two parts, usually make the main word plural: mother-in-law → mothers-in-law.
Examples
- book → books
- bus → buses
- city → cities
- roof → roofs
- knife → knives
- child → children
- sheep → sheep
- matatu → matatus (a Kenyan example)
Practice — Change each to plural
- 1 cat → ______
- 2 box → ______
- 3 lady → ______
- 4 bus → ______
- 5 child → ______
- 6 rice → ______ (can we count rice?)
- 7 mother-in-law → ______
- 8 knife → ______
Answers (click to show)
- cats
- boxes
- ladies
- buses
- children
- Rice is uncountable — we say "some rice" (not "rices").
- mothers-in-law
- knives
Tips for remembering
- Read and write examples. Practice with words you see at home and school.
- When a word looks different, try to remember its irregular form (man → men).
- If unsure, think: "Do I add -s or -es? Is it irregular? Is it uncountable?"
Good luck! Try making 5 more plural forms from words you find in class.