Still having a hard time knowing when to add “s” to form the plural of a noun? Unsure about what type of article to use when referring to a subject?
It is very astonishing to know that there are a lot of people who don’t have any idea on when to use the plural form of the noun and that which agrees with its corresponding verb. There are also times that you haven’t notice that you are using the wrong syntax in writing a sentence and that’s why it will lead you to a whole lot of mess especially when you are unto writing or when you’re dealing with other business type people.
A statement is nothing without the correct verb agreement of the subject and of the predicate. If you happen to be one, you might as well recall with what you have learn during your elementary and secondary years.
If the above details problems that you need a grammar software to help you through, then you need to learn about count and non count nouns. Basically, this property of nouns refer to whether they can be counted or not.
Nouns can be either plural or singular. Generally, these nouns do have a singular form and by adding “s” you can now its plural form. However, there are also nouns that remains in its singular form and can’t be added with “s” to form it into plural. This kind of nouns are called non count nouns.
Definition Time
Count nouns are things that can be divided into smaller distinct units. Non count nouns, on the other hand, refer to things that are regarded as a whole and cannot be broken up in parts.
A table, for instance, is a count noun (you can saw it off). Furniture (which refers to a collective whole), on the other hand, is a non count noun. A book is a count noun; knowledge is a non count noun. Rainstorm is a count noun while weather is a non count noun. And so on.
Applications
Count nouns are words that can be pluralized by adding “s” at the end. Non count, on the other hand, cannot have a plural form. Do note that some words in the English language are both count and non count, depending on use, and can be pluralized with an “s”. Examples of these two timing words include “light,” “sound,” and “problem.”
As for articles, non count nouns can only be combined with the articles “the,” “this,” and “that.” Singular count nouns, on the other hand, can be used with “a,” “an,” “the,” “this” and “that,” while plural non count can only be employed with “the,” “these” and “those.”
Aside from that, you can turn a noun count noun with the help of adjectives and prepositions. This will form an adjective prepositional phrase. Take this for example; she donated ten bottles of milk for the babies.
Milk is a non count noun. You can see how the adjective “ten” and “bottles” are place before the preposition “of” to make the noun “milk” into the plural form.
Don’t get confuse on when and how to use these kinds of nouns. Getting the appropriate knowledge about this stuff is quite useful for some other matters you didn’t expect.
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