Plurals of Nouns

Singular Единственное число Number В английском языке в единственном

числе существительное не имеет никаких специальных показателей.
1) Некоторые существительные, формально имеющие форму
множественного числа, могут обозначать единичный или неисчисляемый
объект, и в этом случае согласуются с глаголом и другими зависимыми словами
в единственном числе. К таким словам относятся:
а) barracks (казармы), crossroads (пересечение дорог, перекрёсток),
headquarters (главный орган управления какими-л. структурами, штаб; штаб-
квартира; орган управления войсками), means (средство; способ, метод;
возможность), news, oats (овёс), series (ряд; серия; последовательность), species
(вид, разновидность), works (1) завод, заводы 2) строительные работы 3)
сооружения 4) мастерская, мастерские)
I had never seen one like it before, the species was new to me. — Я никогда
не видел подобного существа, этот вид был для меня новым.
б) слова, оканчивающиеся на -ics, например mathematics, politics.
в) названия некоторых игр: billiards, darts, dominoes.
г) названия некоторых заболеваний: measles (корь), mumps (свинка
(болезнь), shingles (опоясывающий лишай).
2) Также в единственном числе согласуются с глаголами и другими
зависимыми словами названия государств и организаций, представляющие
собой формы множественного числа: The United States is anxious to improve its
image in Latin America. — Соединенные Штаты стремятся улучшить свой
имидж в Латинской Америке.
3) В британском варианте английского языка собирательные
существительные, т.е. слова, обозначающие группу лиц, множество предметов
и т.п. (например: family, police, team, government, variety, number и т.д.), могут
согласоваться с глаголом и другими зависимыми словами, как в единственном,
так и во множественном числе. The police are chasing someone. — Полиция
кого-то преследует. There are already in Boston a certain number of persons who,
having no occupation, seek out the pleasures of the spirit. — В Бостоне уже
появилось некоторое количество людей, которые, будучи ничем не заняты,
ищут интеллектуальных развлечений.
4) Выражения со словами every, each согласуются с глаголом по
единственному числу. С none допустимо сказуемое, как в единственном, так и
множественном числе.
e.g. He says that (each and) every one of these paintings is a fake. — Он
говорит, что все эти картины — подделки.
e.g. Each of these exercises takes a few minutes to do. — На выполнение
каждого из этих упражнений нужно потратить несколько минут.
e.g. None of my children has/have blonde hair. — У всех моих детей тёмные
волосы.
Much and many also illustrate the distinction between COUNT NOUNS (also
called UNIT NOUNS or COUNTABLES) and MASS NOUNS (or
UNCOUNTABLES). Count nouns such as friend, desk, can be preceded by one, and
may have a separate plural form which can be preceded by How many or by a
numeral higher than one. Mass nouns like, bread, milk, cannot be preceded by one,
they cannot have a separate plural form, but can be preceded by How much.
Just as a word like work can act as either a noun or a verb, so a number of
nouns may be used either as mass or as count according to the speaker’s exact
meaning: light is a mass noun in
e.g. Light travels much faster than sound;
it is a count noun in
e.g. I have a light by my bed.

There are two grammatical numbers in English: Singular and Plural.

There are several ways of writing the plural. The essential ones are:
1. By adding “s” to the singular, e.g.
boy – boys; school – schools

2. By adding “es”
a) to most words that end in “o”, e.g.
potato – potatoes; hero – heroes
N.B. piano – pianos
b) to words that end in the sounds: [s], [tʃ], [ʃ], [ks], [z]
kiss –kisses; brush – brushes; church – churches; box – boxes; size –sizes
matches, buses, bushes, boxes

3. Words ending in “y,” with a consonant immediately before it, change

the “y” to “ies,” e.g.
lady – ladies; fly –flies; story – stories; army – armies
Words ending in “y” with a vowel immediately before it simply add “s,” e.g.
valley – valleys; donkey – donkeys

4. Words ending in “f” or “fe” generally change this to “ves,” e.g.

The following words ending in the singular with the sound /f/, spelt f or fe, end
in the plural with /vz/, spelt –ves:
Like loaf:
leaf – leaves; loaf –loaves; shelf –shelves; thief – thieves;
calf, half, self, wharf, elf, hoof, scarf, sheaf, wolf
Like life:
wife –wives; knife – knives
N.B. wharf (wharves or wharfs) (пристань; причал), hoof (hooves or hoofs)
(название конечностей некоторых животных а) копыто), scarf (scarves or scarfs)
(шарф; кашне) also have a plural that is regular in pronunciation and spelling. (may
end in spelling and pronunciation with /fs/ or /vz/.)
N.B. roofs, handkerchiefs, regular in spelling, may end in pronunciation with
/fs/ or /vz/.
N.B. Treat all other words ending in f as regular, eg cliff –cliffs;
 5. Some words form their plural by a change of vowel, e.g.
These old plural forms have survived in modern English:
a man – men; woman – women
The spelling –men occurs in airman, fireman, gentleman, postman, workman,
etc., though in normal fluent speech the pronunciation of the singular and plural is the
same, ie the final syllable is pronounced /mǝn/. The plural is regular in Germans,
Romans, and the Bowmans (Surnames can be used in the plural, as in: I see that the
Robinsons are having their house repainted.)
b child – children; ox – oxen
c tooth – teeth; foot – feet; goose – geese.
d mouse – mice; louse – lice;
e brethren survives as a plural of brother but is only used in a religious
context; otherwise, the plural of brother – brothers;
f pence survives as a plural of penny, but only to indicate a total amount, as in
The fare is now tenpence. Tenpence may refer to one silver coin or to ten individual
pennies, ie coins worth a penny each.
Pennies might be regarded as a “separate” plural, pence as a collective one. A
similar distinction is found in the plural of a fish and person:

Singular More than one unit, More than one,

separately collectively
Who is that person? Three separate persons. Those people are my
friends.
This fish is good. Two separate fishes. Those fish are bad.

Distinguish between the following two uses of people:

Most people (=persons) are good at heart.
Most peoples (=races) have a country of their own.

6. Some words have the same form for singular or plural, or there is no
separate plural form for
a the names of certain animals, birds and fish, namely
trout; salmon; sheep; grouse (шотландская куропатка), plaice (камбала
(плоская морская рыба)), mackerel (макрель; скумбрия), deer; aircraft;
Thus we can say either:
That is a deer, a sheep, etc., or Those are deer, sheep, etc.
N.B. fish – рыба (собир.), но тж. fishes – разные виды рыб; fruit – фрукт
(собир.), но тж. fruits – разные виды фруктов;
e.g. We’ve caught a lot of fish.
e.g. He knows well the fishes of the Black Sea.
b craft (but only with the meaning of boat) and aircraft.
Thus, one/fifty aircraft; but arts and crafts.
c nouns, meaning “a person or people of that nationality”, ending in the
sound /z/ or /s/, eg
a hundred Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Swiss.
 d. countable nouns with singular (and plural) in -s
series a television series two television series
means a means of transport many means of transport
species a species of bird 200 species of bird
crossroads
headquarters

7. Some words are never used in the plural

a. There are some nouns that are usually uncountable in English but often
countable in other languages.

News, advice, information, knowledge, furniture, luggage, accommodation,

baggage, behaviour, bread, chaos, damage, luck, permission, progress, scenery,
traffic, weather, work
These nouns are usually uncountable, so:
1. you cannot use a/an with them
2. they are not normally plural (we don’t say “breads”, “advices” etc.):
I’m going to buy some bread or …a loaf of bread (not a bread)
3. They are used with a singular verb.
The news was very depressing.
4. Sometimes we have plural forms for these “uncountables”, but with a
different meaning.
The desk is made of wood (material).
There are some pretty woods in England (collection of trees).
b. Some nouns end in -ics but are not usually plural. They are used with a
singular verb.
Mathematics (or maths), physics, electronics, economics, politics, gymnastics,
athletics, billiards, politics
measles (корь), mumps (свинка)
Gymnastics is my favourite sport.

8. Some words have no singular

a. plural nouns with no singular. They are used with a plural verb.
arms оружие
clothes одежда
goods товары
greens зелень
earnings заработки
savings сбережения
stairs лестница
surroundings окрестности, среда
belongings вещи, пожитки
people люди
police полиция
thanks благодарность
 cattle
congratulations
contents
outskirts
remains
troops

b. Sometimes we use a plural noun for one thing that has two parts. (парные
сущ.)
Trousers
Jeans
Tights
Shorts
Pants
Pyjamas
Glasses
Spectacles
Binoculars
Scissors

9. Some singular nouns can be used with a plural or singular verb. These
nouns are all groups of people. (собирательные сущ.)
a. We often think of them as a number of people (=they), not one thing (=it).
So we use a plural verb.
Government
Staff
Team
Family
Audience
Committee
Company
Firm
Family
Class
Club
Orchestra
School
The government (=they) want to increase taxes.
The staff at the school (=they) are not happy with their new working
conditions.
b. A singular verb is also possible.
Every family here owns a house.

10. With compound nouns, if they are made of two nouns – as they very
frequently are –
 a. only the last part takes the plural form, e.g.
Housemaid - housemaids
Shoemaker – shoemakers
Classroom – classrooms
Armchair – armchairs
Forget-me-not – forget-me-nots
N.B. There is one exception to this rule. If the first part of the word is man or
woman, then both words take the plural form, e.g.
Manservant – menservants
b. if the compound noun is made with a preposition, then only the first part
takes the plural form, e.g.
father-in-law - fathers-in-law
man-of-war - men-of-war

11. The following singular expressions usually have plural verbs:

A number of
A number of us are worried about it.
The majority of
The majority disagree.
A couple of
There are a couple of children outside.
A group of
A lot of + plural noun/pronoun
A lot of them were late.
The rest of + plural noun/pronoun
The rest of the members are ill.

12. Some plural expressions have singular verbs:

Latin, Greek and French plurals

a. Nouns with foreign plurals only
Latin, Greek and French plurals occur in a number of words borrowed from the
languages concerned, though there is a strong tendency to make the plural of those
words conform to the rule and to restrict the foreign plural to specialized uses in a
scientific context.
-is analysis – analyses (анализ(ы);
Crisis – crises (кризис(ы)
Axis – axes (ось (и)
Thesis – theses (диссертация(и)
-on criterion – criteria (критерий(и);
phenomenon – phenomena (явление(я)
-um datum – data (данное (ые);
Stratum – strata (слой(и);
 b. Nouns with both foreign and regular plurals
-us cactus – cacti /cactuses (кактус(ы);
genius – genii /geniuses (гений(и);
nucleus – nuclei (ядро(а)
radius – radii (радиус(ы)
stimulus – stimuli
bacillus
fungus
terminus
-a antenna – antennae /antennas (антенна(ы);
formula – formulae /formulas (формула(ы)
-ex/ix index – indices /indexes (индекс(ы);
appendix – appendices /appendixes (аппендикс(ы)
-um medium – media /mediums (способ, средство);
memorandum – memoranda /memorandums меморандум(ы)

Irregular in pronunciation only

The following are regular in spelling, but in pronunciation a final consonant
that is voiceless in the singular becomes voiced in the plural:
a. nouns ending in –th. In bath, the final / / becomes / / in the plural, which is
therefore pronounced / /. The same applies to mouth, oath, path, sheath, truth,
wreath, youth (= young man), and also apply to berth and birth. It does not apply to
nouns ending in –nth, eg months.
b. The voiceless /s/ in house becomes /z/ in the plural, /hauziz/.

Irregular in spelling only: nouns ending in –o

a Add the letters es to a base ending in the letter o:
potatoes, echoes, embargoes, heroes, mottoes, negroes, tomatoes, torpedoes,
vetoes.
The e is optional in:
Buffalo(e)s, cargo(e)s, commando(e)s, grotto(e)s, halo(e)s, mosquito(e)s,
tornado(e)s, volcano(e)s.
b The following do not have e in the spelling:
i nouns ending in the singular in o preceded by any vowel letter or vowel
sound:
bamboos, embryos, folios, kangaroos, oratorios, radios, zoos
ii abbreviations, eg
kilos (= kilograms), memos (= memoranda), photos (= photographs)
iii musical terms of Italian origin:
concertos, contraltos, pianos, solos, sopranos
iv proper names, eg
Eskimos, Filipinos
v dynamos.
Irregular in both pronunciation and spelling