Singular or Plural?

When plural

Author

Affiliation

Hung

Pauline Cullen

1 Tick the correct sentence in each pair.

1. a There are several problem with this idea. b There are several problems with this idea. -> b
2. 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.

1. The children are playing in the street.
2. The number of men studying science has decreased.
3. There are a lot of people in my class.
4. I enjoyed studying mathematics a lot; I found it very interesting
5. The news was very upsetting.
6. How many classes do you have today?
7. A person I really admire is my uncle.
8. My father watches a lot of sport on TV.