1. Grammar in Context 2 Chapter 5
Nouns – Count & Non-Count
Plural Regular & Irregular

2. Regular Nouns Plural Endings
Ends in Vowel add “s”
Bees, bananas, pies, snakes,
Ends in Consonant add “s”
Balls, cats, pots, months, stars.
Ends in /s/ type sound – s, ss, sh, ch, x, z  add “es”
Churches, dishes, boxes, patches, messes

3. Ends in Vowel + y add “s” Consonant + y y becomes “i” + add es
Toys, boys, days, trays.
Consonant + y y becomes “i” + add es
Ladies, fairies, ferries, parties, cherries.
Vowel + o  add “s”
Patios, radios, stereos, videos.
Consonant + o  add “es”
Mosquitoes, potatoes, tomatoes, heroes.
(exceptions) photos, pianos, solos, altos, sopranos, autos, avocados

4. Ends in f or fe  f becomes ves.
Knife  knives
Leaf  leaves
Calf  calves
Life  lives
Exceptions
Belief  beliefs
Chief  chiefs
Roof  roofs
Cliff  cliffs
Chef  chefs
Sherrif  sherrifs

5. Rules – stay singular
Singular nouns that end in “s” don’t have plurals
News is, mathematics is, politics is
Numbers don’t go plural
Ten thousand (not thousands)
Two million (not millions)

6. Rules -- Plural When estimating, approximating
Fifties, sixties, seventies
Some words only have plurals
Pajamas, pants, slacks, eyeglasses, scissors
Irregular plural nouns
Some singular and plural forms are the same
Sheep, fish, deer
Some irregular plurals just change the vowel sound
Manmen womanwomen footfeet
Goosegeese mousemice toothteeth
Some irregular nouns change most of their form
Childchildren personpeople

7. Non-count Nouns
When it would be crazy or impossible to count something we look at the whole, thus we call it a non-count noun. Non-count nouns don’t have a plural (or the plural is used in a very special, unique way)
Milk, oil, wine, yogurt, bread, electricity, lightning, thunder, blood, air, hair, rice, sugar, salt, popcorn, snow, sand, corn, grass.
I see some green grass
Exception—We sell many varieties of grasses (blue fescu, etc.)
Exception –- there are 3 hairs growing out of his mole.
Non-count nouns will use a unit of measurement to indicate quantity e.g. one cup of milk, one bottle of wine, one pound of rice, one teaspoon of salt.

8. Non-Count Nouns Continued
Categories – when the parts of the category or unique/different things
Cash/Money (pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters)
Food (vegetables, cheeses, bread, meat)
Clothing (pants, tops, scarves, shoes)
Abstract Concepts
love, life, happiness, music, information, work, health, noise, energy, poverty, fun, luck, beauty.
School Subjects
History, chemistry, physics, physical education, grammar, geometry, biology, mathematics.

9. There + a form of “Be”
To introduce a new noun (count or non-count) in a paragraph or piece of writing use “there + a form of be”
There is a piece of chalk on the floor.
There are 2 beds in the room.
There will be thunder and lightening tomorrow.
There is a lot of grass on your shoes.

10. Quantifiers
Quantifiers are adjectives that modify the noun and help say how many.
Some, any, a, an, or no
--use affirmative verb with no “He has no time”. For negative – He hasn’t any time.
Much (non-count nouns, ?s, and negatives), many (count nouns), a lot of (affirmatives)
Avoid much in affirmative statements
A few, very few, a little, very little, several
Use little with non-count nouns
The difference between “a few…” and “few” when you leave out the article you emphasize the negative e.g. I have a few friends (means I have 3 or 4). I have very few friends (means I don’t have many maybe just 2 or 3 unlike most people who have many)
Use “very” to emphasis the negative quantity even more
Too, too much, too many

11. Editing Advice – see p. 129
Make your own notes from page Make sure you reword the examples to make your own.

12. Seatwork Ex 1, 2 (all – answers)
Ex 3 find 10 nouns in the article and label them count or noncount
Ex 4, 5 (all – answers)
Ex 7 & 9 (all – answers)
Ex 10, 11 (all – answers)
Ex 16, 17, 18, 19 (all – answers)
P. 128 Writing exercise #2 (remember must use quantifiers).