Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea. Most English nouns form their plural by adding -s (book → books), but nouns ending in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x or -o usually add -es (box → boxes, watch → watches). A noun ending in a consonant + y changes the y to i and adds -es (city → cities), and many nouns ending in -f or -fe change to -ves (leaf → leaves, knife → knives). Some nouns are irregular and change their whole form (child → children, man → men, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, mouse → mice, person → people), while a few stay the same in the plural (sheep, fish, deer). Nouns are also either countable, which can be counted and made plural and take many, few or a number, or uncountable, which cannot be counted, have no plural and take much or little (information, advice, water, money, furniture). We show ownership with the possessive case: add 's to a singular noun (the boy's book), only an apostrophe to a regular plural ending in -s (the boys' books), and 's to an irregular plural (the children's toys). For example: the plural of 'baby' is 'babies' (consonant + y → -ies), and we say 'the women's room' because 'women' is an irregular plural that does not end in -s.