Count nouns have two forms: singular and plural.

Singular count nouns refer to one person or thing:

a book; a teacher; a wish; an idea

Plural count nouns refer to more than one person or thing:

books; teachers; wishes; ideas

Singular count nouns

Singular count nouns cannot be used alone. They must have a determiner:

the book; that English teacher; a wish; my latest idea

Plural forms

We usually add –s to make a plural noun:

book > books; school > schools; friend > friends

We add -es to nouns ending in –ss; -ch; -s; -sh; -x

class > classes; watch > watches; gas > gases; wish > wishes; box > boxes

When a noun ends in a consonant and -y we make the plural in -ies...

lady > ladies; country > countries; party > parties

…but if a noun ends in a vowel and -y we simply add -s:

boy > boys; day > days; play > plays

Some common nouns have irregular plurals:

Man > men; woman > women; child > children; foot > feet;
person > people

Plural count nouns do not have a determiner when they refer to people or things as a group:

Computers are very expensive.
Do you sell old books?



This is the headline in newspaper :

Monsoon in south Andaman Sea; good rains for state till mid-June

My question : 'good rains' ; is the rain countable , can we make it plural

Hello dipakrgandhi,

'rain' is uncountable, but the word is also used in the plural to refer to the rainy season in the tropics. This is why it's used that way here.

All the best,
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello everyone,
I found the phrase "How we talk about things matters.", is that grammatically correct?
Source: Facebook, American Association for State and Local History
As I think "things" and "matters" are plural noun objects in this case, do you agree with it, please tell me?
Thank you

Hello Vitub,

The sentence is grammatically correct. The reason a singular verb is used is that the subject is not 'things' but rather the whole noun phrase 'the way we talk about things'. The key part here is 'way', which is singular. If we changed it to 'the ways we talk about things' then a plural verb would be needed.



The LearnEnglish Team

I was very confused about noun. Now I think I am learning from this website. This website is best to improve my English skills. This lesson is very understandable.

Hi Amirfd,
The second sentence is definitely correct.
The first one is almost correct; if you add the indefinite article before the noun 'apple', the sentence becomes grammatically correct.
"There is not an apple in the fridge." However you wouldn't usually use this construction to express the idea conveyed by the": "There are not any apples in the fridge."

There is no apple in the fridge.
There are not any apples in the fridge.
which one is wrong? Why?

Hello amirfd,

Both sentences are possible.

The second sentence (not any apples) would be used if you are talking about whole apples, as they are countable.

The first sentence (no apple) would be used if you are talking about pieces of apple, as this would be uncountable.



The LearnEnglish Team