21. Chapter 10

COUNT/NONCOUNT NOUNS AND ARTICLES

10-1 PLURAL FORMS OF NOUNS

Exercise 1: Give the plural forms of the nouns.

1. one potato, two potatoes 13. a sandwich, some ________________

2. a dormitory, many ______ 14. a man, many __________________

3. one child, two _________ 15. one woman, two ________________

4. a leaf, a lot of ___________ 16. A flash, three __________________

5. a wish, many ____________ 17. one tomato, a few _______________

6. one fish, two ____________ 18. one tooth, two __________________

7. an opinion, several _______ 19. one half, two ____________________

8. a mouse, several _________ 20.. a tax, a lot of _________________

9. a possibility, several ______ 21. a mosquito, a lot of ______________

10. a thief, many ___________ 22. a wolf, some ____________________

11. an attorney, a few ________ 23. one foot, three __________________

12. a butterfly, several _______ 24. one piano, two __________________

Singular Plural one bird two birds one rose three roses	To make most nouns plural, add –s.
one dish two dishes one match two matches one class two classes one box two boxes	Add –es to nouns ending in –sh, -ch, -ss, -x.
one baby two babies one city two cities	If a noun ends in a consonant + -y, change the y to i and add es. Note: if –y is preceded by a vowel, add only –s: boys, days.
one knife two knives one shelf two shelves	If a noun ends in - fe or –f change the ending to –ves. (Exceptions: beliefs, chiefs, roofs, cuffs).
one tomato two tomatoes one zoo two zoos one zero two zeroes	The plural form of nouns that end in –o is sometimes –oes and sometimes –os.
one child two children one foot two feet one goose two geese one man two men one mouse two mice one tooth two teeth one woman two women	Some nouns have irregular plural forms
one deer two deer one fish two fish one sheep two sheep	The plural form of some nouns is the same as the singular form.

Exercise 2: Notice the expressions of quantity (two, some, a lot of, etc) that are used with count nouns and with noncount nouns.

1. I ate __________ fruit. 2. I get __________ letters every day.

some a lot of

several some

a little a little

a few too many

too many a lot of

too much a few

a lot of too much

two five

SOME COMMON NONCOUNT NOUNS: WHOLE GROUPS MADE UP OF INDIVIDUAL PARTS

A. clothing B. homework E. English, Arabic

equipment housework grammar

food work slang

fruit C. advice vocabulary

furniture information F. corn

garbage gossip dirt

hardware news dust

jewelry noise flour

machinery D. history grass

mail literature hair

makeup music pepper

money poetry rice

cash psychology salt

change engineering sugar

scenery biology wheat

stuff physics

traffic

Exercise 3: Complete the sentences with the correct form, singular or plural, of the given nouns.

1. chair I bought some chairs.

2. furniture I bought _________________ .

3. fruit There (is, are) ________ fruit on the table.

4. vegetable There (is, are) _________ on the table.

5. clothing I have a lot of _______ in my closet.

6. dress Mary has a lot of ______ in her closet.

7. information There (is, are) a lot of ______ in an encyclopedia.

8. fact There (is, are) a lot of _______ in encyclopedia.

9. grammar I know a lot of ________ .

10. vocabulary I’m learning a lot of new ____________ .

11. slang I want to learn some American __________ .

12. idiom I know a lot of English ________ .

13. traffic There (is, are) a lot of ________ in the street.

14. change I need some ______ for the vending machine.

15. stuff Whose _______ (is, are) (this, these)?

16. makeup When Alice went to the drug store, she bought some _____ .

17. garbage The street is very dirty. There (is, are) some _____ in the street.

MORE NONCOUNT NOUNS

A. LIQUIDS (e.g. water) SOLIDS (e.g. ice) and GASES (e.g. steam)