Singular or Plural?
1 Tick the correct sentence in each pair.
- a There are several problem with this idea. b There are several problems with this idea. -> b
- a Many charity organizations provide a great deal of help b Many charity organization provides a great deal of help ->a
If we use a plural noun, we must use a plural verb. The verb must ‘agree’ with the noun:
In my country, there are very few cars that use leaded petrol. (plural verb + plural noun)
I like studying during the day but my friend prefers studying at night. (singular noun + singular verb)
We use a plural noun with: - plural verbs: are, were, have, do, play, etc.: There are a lot of books on the table. - numbers greater than one: 30 cars, 100 students - many: It is annoying that so many buses drive fast because they are full. - the number of: The number of buses on our roads has increased each year.
Note that we use a plural noun but a singular verb after the number of
We use a singular noun with: - singular verbs: is, was, has, does, plays, etc.: There is only one bedroom in the flat. - a/an or one: a car, one student
Note that some nouns can look plural but are singular (news, mathematics) and some nouns have a different form in the plural (children, men, women, people)
2 Correct the mistake below
The number of woman studying science increased dramatically last year.
The number of women studying science increased dramatically last year.
3 Underline the correct word in each sentence.
- The children are playing in the street.
- The number of men studying science has decreased.
- There are a lot of people in my class.
- I enjoyed studying mathematics a lot; I found it very interesting
- The news was very upsetting.
- How many classes do you have today?
- A person I really admire is my uncle.
- My father watches a lot of sport on TV.
4 Which nouns don’t have a plural form?
Tick the correct sentence in each pair
1 a I don’t have many time to complete my assignment b I don’t have much time to complete my assignment
-> a
2 a When I did a search on my computer, I could only find a few informations about the topic.
b When I did a search on my computer, I could only find a little information about the topic.
-> b
Some nouns in English are ‘uncountable’. This means they do not have a plural form. Some common uncountable nouns are: advice, advertising, food, furniture, garbage, information, knowledge, money, shopping, time, traffic, travel
With uncountable nouns, you must see:
- the singular form: food, information, money
- a little / amount of / much / some: How much money do you have? The amount of traffic on the roads is increasing each year.
- a singular verb: There was already a little furniture in the flat.
If a noun is uncountable, you cannot use:
- a plural form: ~~advices, furnitures, garbages, informations, knowledges ~~
- a/an:
an advice, a garbage, a knowledge - a few / many / number of:
a few shopping, many traffie, the number of knowledge - a number:
three travels, four furniture - a plural verb:
There were a little furniture in the flat.
If we want to add a number to an uncountable noun, we can use a piece of / some / a few pieces of: a piece of advice, three pieces of furniture, a few pieces of garbage