7. THE NOUN : NUMBER.

Kindly notice some sort of change in the second word of each pair :-

(1) Tree ---- Trees..... ....(3) Ox ---- Oxen .

(2) Box ---- Boxes...... ....(4) Man ---- Men .

Here the if you see you would find that , the first word of each pair denotes 'one' thing , where as second word denotes 'more than one' .

A Noun that denotes one person or thing is said to be in the Singular Number ; as ,

Boy , girl , cow , bird , tree , book , etc ......

A Noun that denotes more than one person or thing is said to be in the Plural Number ; as ,

Boys , girls , cows , birds , trees , books , etc ......

::::::::::::::::::::::::: How plurals are formed :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

(1) The plural of nouns are generally formed by adding -s to the singular as ; as ,

(1) Boy---boys ;
(2) Girl---girl ;
(3) Book---books ; ......etc...

(2) But nouns ending in -s , -sh , -ch (soft) , or -x form plural by adding -es to the singular ; as ,

(1) Class---- classes ;
(2) Kiss ---- kisses ;
(3) Dish ---- dishes ;
(4) Brush ---- brushes ; ... etc

(3) Generally most of the nouns ending in -o also form plural by adding -es to the singular ; as ,

(1) Buffalo ---- buffaloes ;
(2) mango ---- mangoes ;
(3) hero ---- heroes ;
(4) echo --- echoes ;

(4) A few nouns ending in -o , generally those which are in less common use , add -s ; as ,

(1) dynamo---- dynamoes ;
(2) solo ---- solos ;
(3) ratio --- ratios ;
(4) canto --- cantoes ;

(5) Nouns ending in -y , preceded by a consonant , form their plural by changing -y into -i and adding -es ; as ,

(1) Lady --- ladies ;
(2) army --- armies ;
(3) story --- stories ;
(4) baby --- babies ;

(6) Several nouns ending in -f or -fe form their plural by changing -f or -fe into v and adding -es ; as ,

(1) Theif --- theives ;
(2) wife --- wives ;
(3) wolf --- wolves ;
(4) life --- lives ;

But generally , though above rules follows very well , but exceptions do come in it ......Few nouns form their plural by changing the inside vowel of the singular ; as ,

Man --- men , woman --- women , foot --- feet ;

Some nouns have the singular and plural alike ;as , Swine , sheep , deer , thousand , pair .....etc......

Some are used only as a plural ; as ,Bellows , tongs , spectacles ;Some nouns originally singular are now used as plural ; as ,riches , eaves , alms ;

The following plural forms are commonly used in singular :-Mathematics , physics , mechanics , politics , news ;

Certain Collective Nouns , though singular in the form are always used as plural ; as ,Poultry , cattle , people , vermin ;

Letters and symbols are made plural by adding an apostrophe and s ; as ,for example :-

(1) Add two 5's and four 2's . ;
(2) There are more e's than a's in this page .