CLASS 5 · LEARNING KNOWLEDGE

Articles, singular, and regular plural in English

How it works

In English there are definite (‹the›) and indefinite (‹a›/‹an›) articles. ‹A› is used before words that begin with a consonant sound, for example ‹a cat›. ‹An› is used before words that begin with a vowel sound, for example ‹an apple›. The plural of regular nouns is usually formed by adding ‹-s›, for example ‹book› → ‹books›. Some words end in the plural with ‹-es› when they end in ‹s›, ‹x›, ‹z›, ‹ch› or ‹sh›, for example ‹box› → ‹boxes›. In an indefinite plural, no indefinite article is used: ‹cats›, not ‹a cats› or ‹an cats›. The definite article ‹the› is only possible in the plural when there is a specific reference, for example ‹the cats in our garden›.

Note
Use ‹a› before a consonant sound and ‹an› before a vowel sound. The regular plural is formed with ‹-s› or ‹-es›. In the plural, no indefinite article ‹a›/‹an› is used.

An example

Choose the correct plural form: ‹dog›.

The correct plural form is ‹dogs›, because with regular nouns you simply add ‹-s›.

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50 Exercises

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Own explanation and own practice exercises by AmyMath. Subject reference framework: English. The topic assignment may vary by federal state.