To rewrite sentences means that sentences may need to change from singular nouns to their plural forms.
A noun’s most straightforward definition is an object, and nouns are the fundamental building blocks of sentences. These objects can represent practically anything imaginable, including a person, animal, location, idea, or emotion. Cat, Jack, love, the telephone, London, gallantry, and rocket are nouns.
The more nouns you know in a language, the more effectively you can communicate your thoughts. Here, we will examine how to rewrite sentences by changing singular nouns to plural nouns. Let’s dive in!
Singular vs. Plural Nouns
Words that identify people, places, or things are known as nouns. Nouns can be made singular or plural in English by following a few simple principles and a few more complex ones.
A singular noun is a noun that doesn’t have a plural form and always comes before a definite article like “a” or “the.” Singular nouns are nouns that haven’t been changed in any way from their original form. One person, place, animal, thing, etc., is meant by a singular noun.
Most of the time, singular nouns are easy to understand, but sometimes they can be hard. For example, a collective noun is a single noun that refers to a group of people or things as a whole.
Collective nouns are words like “team,” “family,” and “pile.” Even though these words can be used to talk about more than one person or thing, they are still singular nouns because they talk about a single, separate unit.
If there is more than one of something, it is a plural noun. Plural nouns are used when referring to more than one thing at a time. The same word can describe more than one thing by simply adding an s, es, or ies to the end.
It is simple to distinguish between singular and plural nouns. When a noun refers to a single entity, it is singular. It is plural when a noun denotes more than one.
Examples of Singular Nouns
When it comes to grammar, the word singular means “relating to or indicating a
member of a number category found in many languages that shows that a word
form refers to one person, place, thing, or instance.”
A singular noun is one that only refers to one person or thing. For example, the
word girl is a singular noun.
Here are some singular noun examples.
- The girl has a basket in her hand.
- My dog prefers to eat off a plate.
- The pigeon makes a cooing sound similar to a dove.
Examples of Plural Nouns
Here are some plural noun examples.
- The girls have baskets in their hands.
- Our dogs prefer eating off their plates.
- Those pigeons make cooing sounds similar to doves.
Possessive Apostrophes: Singular and Plural Nouns
Possessive apostrophes indicate that something belongs to a particular person or item. We use an apostrophe when anything belongs to a singular thing or person in a statement.
Check out this example:
Tracy’s coat was on the back of the chair.
We add ‘s when adding a possessive apostrophe to a singular word that does not finish in s. If a singular word ends in -ss, the possessive apostrophe is also added (princess’s room; the boss’s office).
- Where multiple nouns possess something, we must use the plural possessive apostrophes.
- If a plural word ends in s, we show possession by adding an apostrophe after the s: the rats’ litter, the pigs’ house.
- If the plural word doesn’t end in s, we add ‘s: children’s toys, women’s clothes, and men’s shoes.
Rewrite Sentences Changing Singular to Plural
You may be aware that a noun refers to a person, place, thing, or concept.
A singular noun refers to a single person, place, thing, or concept, while a plural noun refers to multiple persons, places, things, or concepts.
Singular nouns are the simplest to employ among the several sorts of nouns. You don’t need to pay attention to any specific capitalization or punctuation standards when utilizing them.
Keep in mind that singular nouns are used with singular verbs like “is,” “was,” and “does” is essential.
There are a few rules to remember while converting a singular noun to a plural one.
Rule 1: The majority of singular nouns require an’s’ to become plural. You can have toys, crates, and hoverboards by adding an ‘s’ to a toy, crate, and hoverboard.
Rule 2: To form plural, singular nouns ending in ‘s’,’ss’,’sh’, ‘ch’, ‘x’, or ‘z’ require an ‘es’.
If you have a stealthy octopus drinking wine from a glass behind a bush and decide that one is not enough, you would have two octopuses doing the same thing. Similarly, a dress, a box, and cloth would become dresses, boxes, and clothes.
Note that some single nouns ending in’s or ‘z’ need double ‘s’ or ‘z’ before the addition of ‘es.’ For instance, on a particularly awful day, you might have three pop quizzes.
Irregular Plural Nouns
There are certain nouns whose singular and plural forms are identical, while there are nouns with peculiar rules for becoming plural. They do not take the -s or -es ending as normal English nouns do in order to become plural.
- So I may possess one or two deer, or one or two sheep. I may be addicted to one or two television series.
- Some nouns ending in ‘f’ must be pluralized by changing the ‘f’ to a ‘v’ and adding a ‘es’ to the end.
For instance, you may have not one elf but two elves sneaking into your home on Christmas night.
However, the English language adores exceptions. Thus, the houses in your area have roofs and not rooves, and your aunt has diverse beliefs and not believes.
- Nouns that end in ‘y’ typically require the ‘y’ to be changed to an ‘i’ and a ‘es’ to get the plural form.
You may enjoy making crazy faces at a stranger’s baby. You may not be happy to be surrounded by strangers’ babies on a long journey.
The English language would not be nearly as entertaining without numerous minor exceptions, and this rule has one. Fortunately, there is a hint to aid us with this.
- If there is a vowel (a, e, I o, u) immediately before the ‘y’ in a noun that ends in ‘y,’ simply add an ‘s’ at the end to make the noun plural.
It would be a lot of fun to ride on an airplane surrounded by monkeys or toys, although I cannot confirm this.
The following does not occur frequently, but it is essential to remember. Most people don’t get it properly. Therefore, it will be pretty impressive if you can demonstrate that you do.
Irregular Nouns
- ‘f’-ending irregular nouns become plural when the ‘f’ is changed to a ‘v’ and a ‘es’ is added to the end.
- Nouns that end in ‘y’ become plural when the ‘y’ is changed to an I and a ‘es’ is added to the end.
- Nouns ending in ‘y’ that begin with a vowel often require only an’s’ ending. A hyphenated compound noun also becomes plural when the initial noun is pluralized.
To Wrap Up
As a noun is made singular, a personal possession can also be made singular. Conversely, a singular noun can be made plural by adding -s or -es. Plural nouns may be made plural by adding -es or -s.
Possession is indicated with apostrophes by adding either the apostrophe +’s’ (‘s) or just an apostrophe to the end of the possessive noun.
While singular nouns employ singular verbs, plural nouns do the reverse (such as are, were, and walk). Single nouns can employ the articles ‘a’ and ‘an’, but plural nouns cannot.
Explore All Rewrite Articles
Best Rewriting Tools For Rewriting Essays!
Every day, a writer faces the task of coming up with new thoughts and words. Although rewriting an existing document…
How to Rewrite Informal to Formal Text
Torewrite informal to formaltext, you need to find a suitable replacement for the informal words. The second step is to…
Changing Sentences in English: Types of Transformations
Experienced writers use a variety of sentence structures and styles to engage the readers and incorporate diversity in writing. Combining…
Top 5 Article Writer Software for You
It can be exhausting if you need to regularly produce high-quality content for publishing. Writing unique content on similar ideas…
How To Rewrite Sentences Using Direct Speech?
In many instances, we need to describe an event or action and repeat what someone said. It is possible to…
Parallel Structure in Writing: an Ultimate Guide
Errors in parallelism are grave because they hamper communication and leave readers bewildered. When writers, lecturers, and knowledge workers fail…