Talk:English in Use/Nouns

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Trying to describe a noun is hard! Words are just text labels for objects, concepts, actions, attributes, or simply "things" which fulfil certain functions within the languages which use them. Nouns are words which are associated with physical objects, or with abstract concepts, or with the names of people or objects or concepts.

I am not sure that it is OK to say that "Nouns are just names"!

Further, I do wonder whether it makes sense to do this section without using images. Mention is made of a chair, but this does not make sense to anyone who does not already know a word for chair, or who has not seen a chair or used one. David Martland 11:06, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I copied the exercises here, this article is already much too long. Adding the whole Wikipedia article on plurals there made it a mess. Perhaps the articles should be in a separate article, as a long article with many exercises in the middle is almost impossible to follow. Tkorrovi (talk) 15:39, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Exercises
'''Write the plurals. Follow the examples.'''

Exercise 1 Most plurals ? noum + -s. cat       ____________________________________ chair     ____________________________________ girl      ____________________________________ sofa      ____________________________________ student   ____________________________________
 * e.g.: book ? books

Exercise 2 Nouns ending in -s,-ss,-sh,-ch,-x,-z ? noum + -es, which is spelled -es if the word does not already end with -e.
 * e.g.: glass ? glasses, phase ? phases

dish      ____________________________________ witch     ____________________________________

Exercise 3 Nouns ending in -y preceded by a vowel ? noum + -s.
 * e.g.: boy ? boys

day       ____________________________________ monkey    ____________________________________ key       ____________________________________

Exercise 4 Nouns ending in -y preceded by a consonant ? -y + -ies
 * e.g.: cherry ? cherries

lady      ____________________________________

Exercise 5 Nouns ending in –o ? noun + -es

potato    ____________________________________ volcano   ____________________________________
 * e.g.: hero ? heroes

Exeptions:

a) Some foreign words (especially from Latin). ? noun + -s
 * e.g.: kilo ? kilos

b) All nouns ending in –o preceded by a vowel. ? noun + -s
 * e.g.: radio ?	radios

c) Some nouns ending in –o have two plural forms. ? noun + -s or -es
 * e.g.: volcano	? volcanos or volcanoes

buffalo   ____________________________________ mango     ____________________________________

Exercise 6 A few nouns ending in -f or -fe ? -ves
 * e.g.: calf ? calves

elf       ____________________________________ half      ____________________________________ knife     ____________________________________ leaf      ____________________________________ life      ____________________________________ loaf      ____________________________________ sheaf     ____________________________________ shelf     ____________________________________ thief     ____________________________________ wife      ____________________________________ wolf      ____________________________________

Exercise 7 Many words ending in -f or -fe ? noun + -s proof     ____________________________________ roof      ____________________________________
 * e.g.: cliff ? cliffs

Note: Some words have both forms.
 * e.g.: staff ?	staffs or staves

Exercise 8 Regular Plurals of Nouns - Gap-fill exercise (External link)