Function of Noun

A noun can function as the subject or the object of a verb or preposition in a sentence. 

1. When to use Singular Noun

When you talk about one person, animal, place or thing, use a singular noun. For example;

an apple: I ate an apple.
a letter: He wrote a letter.
a boy: He is no longer a boy.
a bus: Let’s take a bus.
a map: I need a map.

2. ‘A’ or ‘An’ before a Singular Noun

Use indefinite articles ‘A’ or ‘An’ before a singular noun. A/An means “one thing or person”. They indicate that the noun which is used a sentence is neither particular nor definite.

 We use ‘A’ in front of consonant sounds and An in front of vowel sounds. For examples;

A man: When we pronounce ‘man’, it has a consonant sound in the beginning.

A University: When we pronounce ‘University’, it has a consonant sound in the beginning.

An M.L.A: When we pronounce ‘M.L.A’, it has a vowel sound in the beginning.

Pay attention to sound before using a or an because a noun starting with a consonant letter may have vowel sound and vice versa.

When we use adjectives with nouns, we focus on the sound of adjectives not nouns for use of A/An.

For example;

My father bought a small umbrella for me.

Here we focus on the sound of ‘small‘ for the use of A/An not on the sound of ‘umbrella‘.

1. When to use Plural Noun

When you talk about two or more people, animals, places, or things, use plural nouns.

To use plural nouns,  

1. a noun determiner is optional. You can use the, zero, all numbers except one, these, those, any, no, either, neither, other, some, both, few, enough, plenty, of, a lot of, lots of, many, all, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, or a possessive noun.
2. use a base form of the verb if they act as a subject.

2. Making Plurals

We apply the following rules to make plurals:

1. Most nouns are made plural, by adding ‑s to the end.

Singular	Plural
Girl Boy Fan Pen Dog Chair	Girls Boys Fans Pens Dogs Chairs

2. If the singular noun ends in ‑s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z, add ‑es to the end to make it plural.

Singular	Plural
Tax ends in -x Bus ends in -s Church ends in -ch Crash ends in -sh Box ends in -x	Taxes Buses Churches Crashes Boxes

3. If the singular ends in consonant + у (for example -by, -dy, -ту, -ty), the plural is normally made by changing у to i and adding -es.

Singular	Plural
Party Ends in -ty Lady Ends in -dy Baby Ends in -by	Parties Ladies Babies

4. Some nouns ending in -fe or -f have plurals in -ves

Singular	Plural
Knife Ends in -fe Leaf Ends in -f	Knives Leaves

Some nouns that end in -f or -fe can have plurals in either -fs or -ves.

Singular	Plural
Scarf Ends in -f Hoof Ends in -f	Scarfs or Scarves Hoofs or Hooves

5. Irregular plural (no rule to make them plural)

Singular	Plural
Child Man Woman Mouse Tooth Ox Person Foot	Children Men Women Mice Teeth oxen People Feet

6. Some words that come from foreign languages have special plurals.

Singular	Plural
analysis  Appendix Bacterium basis Cactus crisis  Criterion diagnosis  formula  Fungus Hypothesis phenomenon  radius	analyses (Latin) appendices (Latin) bacteria (Latin) bases (Greek) cacti (Latin) crises (Greek)  criteria (Greek) diagnoses (Greek) formulae (Latin) or formulas  fungi (Latin) or funguses hypotheses (Greek) phenomena (Greek)   radii (Latin)