Notes

NOUNS
If you could have only two kinds of words with which to communicate, what would you choose? Probably you'd pick nouns and verbs. The basic structure of language depends on these two kinds of words. For example, if you were to take the sentence Jim rode his bike yesterday and eliminate all the words except nouns and verbs, the meaning would still be fairly clear, Jim rode bike. This is because most of the meaning in language is tied up in nouns and verbs.
Nouns are naming words. Nouns give names to people, places, things, and ideas.
people: boy, girl, engineers, Mrs. Brown, President Bush, friend
places: house, bakery, Cowpoke Ranch, New York, Europe, Smith's Department Store
things: book, tire, Golden Gate Bridge, planet
ideas: fear, happiness, talent, wisdom

We use nouns to name everything we know around us: what we can see, taste, and touch, and what we cannot—emotions and concepts.

As words, nouns have special features that other words in the language don't share. They can be made to show plural (more than one) or possession (ownership of something).

Example:

singular plural singular possessive plural possessive
dog dogs dog's bone dogs' bones
PLURAL NOUNS

The following are rules covering the pluralizing of nouns. Spelling of plurals depends on the type of noun being pluralized. Knowledge of the rules of pluralization will help you to spell the plural form of many nouns correctly.

RULE 1: BASIC RULE: Plurals are normally formed by adding s to the singular form.

Example:

flight flights
chance chances
idea ideas
RULE 2: NOUNS ENDING IN S, X, CH, SH, or Z: When the singular form ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, the plural is formed by adding es to the singular.

Example:

bias biases
lens lenses
tax taxes
Singular nouns ending in silent s do not change their forms in the plural.

Example:

one corps two corps
one chassis two chassis
RULE 3: NOUNS ENDING IN Y: When a singular noun ends in y preceded by a consonant, the plural is formed by changing the y to i and adding es to the singular.

Example:

copy copies
lady ladies
When a singular noun ends in y preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by adding s to the singular.

Example:

delay delays
boy boys
RULE 4: NOUNS ENDING IN O: For singular nouns ending in o preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by adding s to the singular.

Example:

stereo stereos
ratio ratios
Singular nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant form their plurals in different ways.

Example:

hairdo hairdos
photo photos
potato potatoes
hero heroes
RULE 5: NOUNS ENDING IN F, FE, or FF: Most singular nouns that end in f, fe, or ff form their plurals by adding s to the singular form.

Example:

belief beliefs
proof proofs
Some commonly used nouns in this category form their plurals by changing the f or fe to ve and adding s.

Example:

half halves
wife wives
A few of these nouns have two plural forms (the preferred form is given first.)

Example:

scarf scarves scarfs
dwarf dwarfs dwarves
RULE 6: NOUNS WITH IRREGULAR PLURALS: The plurals of some nouns are formed by a change of letters within.

Example:

woman women
mouse mice
A few plurals end in en or ren.

Example:

ox oxen
child children
RULE 7: COMPOUND NOUNS: When a compound noun is a solid word, pluralize the final element in the compound as if it stood alone.

Example:

printout printouts
hatbox hatboxes
birthday birthdays
grandchild grandchildren
forefoot forefeet
The plurals of hyphenated or spaced compounds are formed by pluralizing the chief element of the compound.

Example:

father-in-law fathers-in-law
runner-up runners-up
lieutenant general lieutenant generals
When a hyphenated compound does not contain a noun as one of its chief elements, simply pluralize the final element. (This often occurs when a noun word is coined from a verb plus and adverb.)

Example:

hang-up hang-ups
hand-me-down hand-me-downs
show-off show-offs