Find the noun that has only the plural form

English nouns that only have a plural form

16th November 2018 by Andrew 4 Comments

Certain English nouns only have a plural form. The form is always plural. Never singular.

There are 3 types of nouns where the form is always plural:

Let’s look at each type in detail.

Certain articles of clothing

The following articles of clothing only have a plural form:

Examples:

by John Kasawa | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Certain tools and instruments.

The following tools and instruments only have a plural form:

Examples:

“pair of”

We use the following structure for ONE unit (singular) of the clothes and tools previously mentioned:

Examples:

“pairs of”

We use the following structure for several units (plural):

“ pairs of ” + noun

Examples:

by John Kasawa | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Other nouns with only a plural form

belongings
Meaning: Personal things that belong to you. (bag, hat, glasses, scarf)
Example:
Teacher: Do not leave your belongings in the classroom.

savings
Meaning: Money in your bank account. You are saving the money for the future.
Example:
I spent my savings on a new car.

clothes
Meaning: General word for a collection of articles of clothing.
Example:
His clothes are dirty.

More lessons

English video lesson

11 Nouns That Only Have a Plural Form

Of all the grammar concepts we have, “plural” seems to be one of the most straightforward. You got one thing? It’s singular. Got more than one thing? It’s plural. But alas, language is always less straightforward than we expect. The way we conceptualize something—as one thing or many things—doesn’t always match up with the way our word for it behaves. There are some nouns that only have a plural form, regardless of how we think of them. They are known as pluralia tantum, Latin for “plural only.” Here are 11 of them.

1. Scissors

Scissors has a plural verb agreement. We say, “the scissors are over there,” not «the scissors is over there.» Scissors likes to hang on to its s. We can say “give me a pair of scissors,” but not “give me a scissor.” True, there is a sense in which scissors are two objects, two blades, being used as one tool, and many similar tools are also pluralia tantum: pliers, tongs, tweezers, forceps. But not all such tools are plural. A clamp, a bear trap, and a flat iron are also tools made of two joined parts, and they are singular.

2. Goggles

Goggles, glasses, and binoculars only show up in the plural. They are also generally conceived of as unitary objects, though they are made up of two connected parts. When new words are coined for things that function in front of the eyes, they will usually inherit the grammatical plurality (Blue Blockers, RayBans), but not always (see View-Master, Google Glass).

3. Pants

In the rarefied world of fashion reporting, you may see pant show up as a singular noun (“a floral pant is a must-have for spring”), but for the rest of us, pants is strictly plural. The tendency toward plural forms for clothing that provides separate enclosures for the two legs is strong: shorts, jeans, bloomers, tights, leggings, trousers, chaps, etc. The tendency for new such words to be coined with plurality is also strong: bell bottoms, skinnies, capris. We even say things like, “Levis are popular,” even though the brand name is actually not plural, but possessive—Levi’s.

4. Panties

The word underwear is a mass noun that takes singular agreement (“your underwear is showing”) but there are a cluster of pluralia tantum underwear words. In addition to panties, we have drawers, boxers, briefs, and tighty whities. Interestingly, thong is singular (perhaps because leg enclosure has little to do with it?), and so is bra (though it shares the shape characteristics of glasses and goggles).

5. Clothes

Pluralia tantum are often objects that involve some kind of connected pairing of two identical things, but they can also be terms for large collections of dissimilar things. Clothes, for example, can be shirts, pants, skirts, jackets, or underwear (we never say clothe to mean a singular item of clothing). Similarly, manners can be ways of talking, eating, or greeting.

6. Riches

There are a number of pluralia tantum that refer to possession or ownership. In addition to riches, there are furnishings, belongings, earnings, and valuables.

7. Jitters

There are also a few pluralia tantum having to do with mood or feelings. You can have the blues or be in the doldrums, but not have a blue or be in a doldrum. Likewise, jitters, willies, and heebie-jeebies always come in groups.

8. Shenanigans

Words for activities that might be individually very different in their specifics but similar in some general aspect will sometimes be pluralia tantum. You may indulge in shenanigans, heroics, or hysterics, or sometimes all three.

9. Remains

There is a small group of pluralia tantum for what’s left after the dust has settled. They may be remains, ruins, or leftovers.

10. Annals

There does happen to be a singular noun annal. It means the recorded events of one year. But we almost never see it this way. Most of us use annals in the way we use other plurals from set, antiquated phrases—pluralia tantum like alms and amends.

11. Suds

Suds is a strange one. Usually a word for a mass of stuff made of of teeny, tiny individuated parts will be a mass noun. For example, rice, sand, sugar, and salt are all mass nouns. Mass nouns have singular verb agreement (“the rice is cooked”). Suds is a plural noun and has plural agreement (“the suds are everywhere”). Does this mean we care more about individual soap bubbles than individual grains of rice? Probably not. Is that what a sud even is? A bubble? It doesn’t matter anyway, because we can know what suds are without knowing what a sud is. That’s the beauty of pluralia tantum.

A version of this list first ran in 2013.

Plural-Only Nouns

There is a small group of nouns that exist only in the plural form, for example:

These nouns do not exist in the singular form and are usually described as «plural-only nouns».

We use them with plural verbs and plural pronouns, for example:

We cannot use them with numbers.

Plural-Only Nouns with Two Parts

Many plural-only nouns are tools or items of clothing that have two parts (like trousers, which have two legs).

Clothing

Tools

pair of

Because the above examples have two parts, we can refer to them as «pair of» or «pairs of» to quantify them.

To talk about one item we can say a pair of, one pair of, my pair of, this pair of etc. To specify more than one item we can say two pairs of, three pairs of etc.

Some nouns may be plural-only with one meaning and singular/plural with other meanings. For example, the plural-only noun glasses means a pair of lenses that we wear to help us see better. Do not confuse with the words:
glass, glasses (countable noun): a container for drinking from. I’d like two glasses of orange juice please.
glass (uncountable noun): transparent material used for windows, screens etc. Be careful not to break the glass.

Other Plural-Only Nouns

In these example sentences notice the use of plural verbs and plural pronouns:

How to form plurals of nouns in English

It would not be an exaggeration to say that perhaps 90% of sentences cannot do without this part of speech, if we exclude the simplest constructions with pronouns and adjectives. Today we will analyze this most important category of English grammar.

We will find out how it is used, what varieties it has, as well as how the plural of nouns is composed in English. The topic is simple and beginners usually learn quickly, they only have to learn a few exceptions and consolidate the theory by performing a practical task.

This part of speech denotes persons or objects, answering questions what?Who?(what / who?). In a sentence, such words can play the role of a subject, object, circumstance and even definition, provided that the noun is used in the possessive case. By the way, this is the only case of changing the end of this part of speech, with the exception of the formation of the plural form.

This category is subdivided into the same sections as in Russian: common nouns, proper, collective, concrete, abstract, countable and uncountable nouns.

For our topic, it is important to note that abstract and uncountable representatives of this category cannot have plural constructions.

At the same time, there are words that are used exclusively in a collective form: policeclothing,glasses,scissors,people,trousers etc. All other types of words will be discussed in detail in the next section.

English, and in this it is similar to Russian, endowed the noun with two numerical categories: singular and plural. And, if with a single number everything is in principle clear, since this is a dictionary form of a word, then the formation of multiple meanings requires knowledge of certain grammatical laws. Let’s take a closer look at them.

The easiest and most widespread way to get the plural form of nouns is to add a letter to the base of the word s.

Note that the indefinite article can be accompanied exclusively by the singular, and the definite appears with nouns of both categories.

Some nouns in English take this rule in a peculiar way. The table below will help us to consider the special cases of joining the ending.

Plural of words in English

It is believed that the grammatical topic “plural words in English«Is nothing complicated. And, indeed, in most cases, you just need to use the ending and that’s it. But the point is that there are several important exceptions and the same ending is not always added.

In addition, the ending itself is read differently, depending on what is in front of it. If we want our speech (both oral and written) to surprise us not by the number of mistakes, but by its correctness, let us remember once and for all what to do if you need to form a plurality of words in the English language.

Believe me, there is nothing super complicated in this!

The plural of words in English. The main rule

In our example, the ending should be pronounced rather loudly. Not as «es», but as «ez». This is because the word «orange» has a vowel at the end. According to the rule, the ending should sound voiced every time it is added to a vowel or voiced consonant.

examples:

Plural endings. English «nonsense»

What else could there be plural endings? English the language cannot but surprise with its logic and the presence of exceptions (we will talk about them a little later). Let’s consider the most popular «non-standard» cases of plural formation using the following examples.

1. If a word ends with -Y, then when adding –ES it changes to I.

2. The first rule does not work if before our -Y there is not a consonant, but a vowel.

3. If a noun ends in -F, then the plural is –VES.

Now it’s time to study how it is formed plural nounsif we come across exceptions.

Let’s start with those words that just need to be remembered, since their plural forms cannot be explained in any way. The good news is that there are very few such units.

If a compound word is written together, then you should use the standard rule:

Plural of Nouns

In English, everything countable nouns * used both in the singular and in the plural.

* Countable Nouns denote items that can be counted (one, two, three, four, five, etc.): one apple, two apples, three apples; one story, two stories, three stories.

Countable and uncountable nouns

The main way of forming the plural

In English, the plural of nouns is formed by attaching an ending -s (-es) to a noun in the singular:

If a noun ends in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -tch, -z, -x, then the ending is added -Is:

If a noun ends in vowel + y, then the ending is simply added -s:

But in some cases, nouns ending in -f, the ending is simply added -s:

If a noun ends in -o, then the ending is added -Is:

In some cases, for nouns ending in -o, the ending is added -s:

Special plural forms of nouns

There are nouns in English, the plural of which must be remembered:

Remember also nouns in which the plural form coincides with the singular form:

Please note that the same noun can be either countable or uncountable, depending on its lexical meaning. For example, salmon (salmon) in the meaning of «kind of fish» is a countable noun, therefore, has the plural form:

Good afternoon dear friends!

The ones to learn

But there are some exception words that defy the general rule. I have already talked about some in the article «Plural rules in English».

Subscribe to the blog, find even more useful articles and rules, and you will also receive as a gift a basic phrasebook in three languages, English, German and French. The main plus is that there is Russian transcription, therefore, even without knowing the language, you can easily master colloquial phrases.

One of the groups that I will tell you about here are those that do not add an ending, but completely change their root. Do not be surprised, and such words are present in Russian. In the singular we say a child, and if three, then there are already three children. I offer a list of such words of exceptions in English in the table:

Exception words do not change according to the general rule

There are groups of words that change, but not as a general rule.

Examples of exceptions

A group of nouns that ends in –f or –fe replace f with v and add –es. What about complex nouns?
I propose to get acquainted with them in the table:

Another group of nouns is one that sounds exactly the same in both singular and plural. For example, Old McDonald has got one sheep on his farm.

Old McDonald has got three sheep on his farm. As you noticed, in both examples, the word sheep is the same. This group also includes: fish (fish), deer (deer), moose (elk), swine (boar), buffalo (buffalo), shrimp (shrimp), trout (trout).

Did you repeat our last lesson on intonation in English?

Nouns that don’t change

As always, in order to assimilate a new topic more effectively, I suggest doing the following exercise.

Consider if the word in parentheses is an exception and put it in the plural.

If you want to get more interesting and motivating information on how to learn English, subscribe to the Viva Europe blog. Also, you will find tips and interesting facts about travel to different countries.

I was with you, a philologist of the English language, Ekaterina Martynova.
I wish you all a good day!

Plural of English nouns

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When we talk about a subjectah, the phenomenons, peoples, we use the plural. In this article, we will analyze the general rules for the formation of the plural, give examples and indicate the exception words that do not lend themselves to the rules. And at the end of the article, you will find a detailed table in which we have collected all the rules, exceptions and many examples so that you always have a plural cheat sheet at your fingertips. Let’s start?

The basic rule for the formation of plural nouns

BUT!

The plural of «incorrect» nouns

Let’s now see how the Rebecca teacher from engvid explains this topic in English.

Even if you have a low level of English, you will in any case understand what she is saying, as she speaks slowly and uses words that we already know.

English plural uncountable nouns

But also in English there are nouns that are used only in the singular, they simply do not have a plural form. Such nouns are called uncountable. Russian also has similar words: information (information), coffee (coffee). Uncountable nouns in English include the following groups:

What if we need to count the number of these uncountable nouns? In this case, we consider not the objects and phenomena themselves, but what they are measured by.

For example, we cannot say “two sugars”, but we can say “two kilogram sugar «,» two spoons sugar «,» two sachet sugar «- in all these cases, we count sugar using units of measurement of bulk solids.

By the way, note that in Russian in all examples, the word «sugar» is in the singular. Each of the uncountable nouns has its own units of measurement:

Without the rules for the formation of the plural, it is impossible to speak English competently, because this topic is closely related to the use of verbs, articles and other parts of speech. Therefore, it is so important to understand all the rules well. Do not forget to download the table by which you can always navigate and choose the correct plural.

And also take the test to better remember the rules.

Plural of nouns in English

Singular and plural nouns

In terms of numbers, it is mainly countable nouns that change. Uncountable nouns, as a rule, are used only in the singular form:

In the plural, they are used only when the variety of species, concepts expressed by them is meant, or when they are used in another meaning in which they are already countable. For example:

The plural of nouns is usually formed by adding an ending -s to the singular form:

Reading the ending «-s»:

Exception l. Nouns ending in the singular with letters o, s, ss, sh, ch, x (sibilants and sibilants, as they are called), plural ending -Is:

BUT: In words of foreign origin ending in o, only the ending is added to the noun in the plural -s:

Exception 2. For nouns ending in y with a preceding consonant, y is dropped and the ending is added instead -ieswhich reads [-iz]:

BUT: If there is a vowel in front of y, then the plural is formed according to the general rule, that is, by adding an ending -s:

4. Some nouns are plural by changing the root vowel:

5. For compound nouns, the plural is formed by adding an ending -s to the second word:

Words borrowed from Greek or Latin languages ​​form a plural form according to the rules of these languages:

Names Nouns used only in the singular

He gave me some good advice. He gave me some good advice.
My coach was satisfied with my progress. My coach was pleased with my progress

What is the news? What’s the news? It’s his money. This is his money.

Fruit is cheap in autumn. In the fall, fruits are cheap.

Nouns Plural only nouns

The noun people (peoples) in the plural means people (peoples), in the singular meaning people.

There were many people in the square. There were many people in the square.
There are many peoples in Russia. There are many peoples (lives) in Russia.

Nouns in English

First, let’s remember what a noun is?

I dare to hope that your answer will be something like: “the part of speech that answers the questions who? / What? and denotes an object or person «

So, nouns in any language have some characteristics. For example, nouns can be proper (Harry Potter Shrek. Spiderman. Hogwarts. London. Canada, etc.) or common nouns (concrete dragon, drone; abstract friendship, health; real sugar, wood; collective team, staff). Here, the Russian and English languages ​​have no discrepancies.

In addition, there are animate nouns (mother, dog, wizard, monster) and inanimate nouns (table, phone, car). In this regard, our languages ​​are friendly again. And, if you do not think about the philosophical question of what category the hut on chicken legs falls into, you will not have any problems.

It’s time to praise English for its «learning accessibility»

And English nouns have no declensions! And the case is only 2, not 6, as we have in Russian, and not 4, as in German! And also the cases in English are not complicated at all.

Now let’s dwell on the signs that nouns in English have

Let’s consider them.

However, this theory does not give exhaustive answers to all questions.

Plural of nouns. Exceptions

«Twelve angry but»- is a brilliant movie about a Mon who was brave enough to doubt. «Twelve Angry Men» — a brilliant film about a man who dared to doubt.

Women can see breasts anytime they want. You just look down, and there they are. How do you get any work done is beyond me. (Friends)

Another exception to remember. Although, this word has been encountered so many times in various places that it is simply impossible not to remember it.

Which in the plural becomes such a close and native word «people», in the sense of people.

The next two exceptions are related to body parts. Let’s start with the teeth. One tooth is a tooth, several are teeth.

Do not forget that the foot is not only a part of the body, but also a measure of length. And although it sounds to us like a unit of measurement from adventure novels and westerns, in America it is used all the time. It is equal, as you might guess, to the length of the average foot, i.e. about 30 cm.

Plural of nouns in English: the rule of education

In order to form plural nouns in English without mistakes, choose suitable verbs, pronouns and build sentences, it is not enough to know the rule. You need to be able to distinguish countable from uncountable nouns, to know the exceptions and different meanings of the same word. And of course it takes practice.

We will go in order so that you can get a good understanding of this topic from our tutorial.

The material is intended for beginners and learners of English from scratch, as well as for systematization of knowledge and repetition.

The concept of a noun (noun)

Recall that a noun (noun) is a part of speech that denotes an object, person, phenomenon or material structures. The noun answers the question “Who? What?»:

What is it? This is my new furniture.

Difference between countable and uncountable nouns

It is important to learn to distinguish between countable and uncountable nouns, because plural forms only for countable nouns.

#Countable nounsUncountable nouns

German grammar (reference)

Grammar reference| German alphabet | Business correspondence in German | Friendly correspondence in German | German labels

Plural of Nouns

All German nouns can be divided into 3 types:

Nouns with only singular. These include real names и many abstract.

For example: die Milch, das Fleisch (meat), der Schnee; die Kälte (cold), die Geduld (patience)

Nouns with only plural.

For example: die Leute, die Geschwister, die Eltern

Note:

Nouns of the 1st and 2nd type (they are also called Singulariatantum и Pluraliatantum) do not always correspond to similar words in the Russian language.

For education plural exist 3 grammatical tools:

Based on these suffixes in German stand out 5 methods Education plural nouns:

Using suffix -e(with or without umlaut)

Using suffix -most(without umlaut)

Using suffix -R(with umlaut)

Using suffix -s(with or without umlaut)

No suffix (with or without umlaut)

And a few words to support you. The topic is quite extensive, so it is best to learn plural nouns by heart using a dictionary. And, if you want to be an expert in plural education, then on the next page you will find small table с suffixes и examples.

Plural of Nouns (continuation).

For convenience, consider the following table on the formation of the plural of nouns:

Exercise 1

Put plural nouns and the article / and / or accompanying word in Dativ / Akkusativ / Genitiv in the correct form.

Plural of nouns in English

The plural of nouns in English is not a difficult topic, however, there are also some nuances that need to be paid attention to. Let’s thoroughly analyze all the rules for the formation of the plural in English.

NOUNS USED ONLY IN THE PLURAL FORM (PLURALIA TANTUM)

a) Clothes consisting of two parts – they always agree with a plural verb, e.g.

trousers, shorts, breeches, pyjamas, knickers, pants, tights, etc.

Look at my new tights! They are torn!

b) Tools and instruments consisting of two parts – they always agree with a plural verb, e.g. scissors, binoculars, glasses, spectacles, tongs, etc.

These scissors are not sharp. Give me another pair.

c)Nouns whose singular and plural forms have different meanings, e.g.

arms clothes thanks congratulations customs species

goods looks manners belongings earnings works

regards riches outskirts shortcomings means premises

savings greens spirits whereabouts contents

These nouns are used only with the plural verb, e.g.

All their savings were in the Western European Bank and when it bankrupted, they lost everything.

Give my regards to your parents.

11. COLLECTIVE NOUNS

1. Nouns that mean a group of people united by one common characteristic can be used either with a singular or plural verb. These nouns include:

family crowd audience public parliament crew government authority class company group team

means that all people in this means that all people

group are a unit are regarded as individuals

My family is important for me. My family are going away next weekend. (They are all going to different places)

a) The noun POLICE is always used with the definite article and agrees with a plural verb, e.g.

The police are now looking for the bank robbers.

b) The nouns FISH and FRUIT are nowadays used only in the singular even if different types are meant. But they are substituted by a plural pronoun, e.g.

The fisherman caught several big fish. The fish is good. They are now lying on the bottom of his boat glittering in the sun.

There are so many fish in our river. They have come for spawning.

The fruit was not ripe. They were picked up too early.

c) The nouns PEOPLE and PEOPLES mean different things:

A very friendly people lives in this part of Africa.

Different peoples live on out planet and they speak different languages.

Most people are good at heart.

This person is good at heart.

f) The nouns PENNY and PENCE are different notions.

· pence means the price, e.g. The chewing gum costs 99 pence.

· pennymeans coins, e.g. The shop assistant gave me two pennies. It was wrong. She had to give me 3 pennies.

g) The nouns HAIRand HAIRS have different meaning.

· hair on one’s head always agrees with a singular verb, e.g.

Mary’s hair is red and thick.

· a hair may have both singular and plural forms, e.g.

She always has a wonderful hairdo. Not a single hair out of place.

Look there is a long red hair on your jacket. It might be Mary’s

12. COMPOUND NOUNS

These nouns consist of two or more words joined together to form a single lexical meaning. They may be written: as one word, e.g. headache; with a hyphen e.g. mouse-trap or separately e.g. police station.

They form the plural in different ways:

a) Normally the last word is made plural,

e.g. boy-friends, travel agents, etc.

b) But where MAN or WOMAN is found, both parts are made plural

e.g. men drivers, men servants, women students, etc.

c) The first word is made plural in nouns consisting of:

noun + preposition

e.g. passers-by, lookers-on, etc;

noun + preposition + noun

e.g. mothers-in-law, commanders-in-chief, men-of-war, etc.

noun+ adjective

e.g. a court-martial – courts-martial; an attorney-general – attorneys-general

d) The last word is made plural in nouns consisting of:

verb + preposition

e.g., break-ins, carry-ons, sit-ins, lay-bys, take-offs, forget-me-nots, etc.

adjective + preposition

e.g. close-ups, grown-ups, etc.

13. PROPER NOUNS

The Kelleys came in time, but both Marys were late.

(= There were two families with the same name, the Kelleys, and two separate people with similar names, Marys)