1) Clauses – Part 2

Nouns: Singular and Plural nouns

Singular Noun (ඒක වචන): One person, place, thing or idea

Plural Noun (බහු වචන): More than one person, place thing or idea

Reference: https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/singular-and-plural-nouns/

REGULAR NOUNS
Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s.

EXAMPLES

Singular Plural

boat boats

house houses

cat cats

river rivers

A singular noun ending in s, ss (Reference: https://study.com/academy/lesson/singular-plural-nouns-definitions-rules-

examples.html), x, z, ch, sh makes the plural by adding-es.

EXAMPLES

Singular Plural

bus buses

wish wishes

pitch pitches

box boxes

Note that some singular nouns ending in 's' or 'z' require that you double the 's' or 'z' before adding an 'es'. For
example, a really bad day might involve you having not one pop quiz, but two pop quizzes.
A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural by dropping the y and adding-ies.

EXAMPLES

Singular Plural

penny pennies

spy spies

baby babies

city cities

daisy daisies

With a noun that ends with “y” , if there’s a vowel (a, e, i, o ,u ) right before the “y”, then you just add an “s” at the end
to make the noun plural. Ex: monkey – monkeys, toy - toys

IRREGULAR NOUNS
There are some irregular noun plurals. The most common ones are listed below.

EXAMPLES

Singular Plural

woman women

man men

child children

tooth teeth
Singular Plural

foot feet

person people

leaf leaves

mouse mice

goose geese

half halves

knife knives

wife wives

life lives

elf elves

loaf loaves

potato potatoes

tomato tomatoes

cactus cacti

focus foci

fungus fungi
Singular Plural

nucleus nuclei

syllabus syllabi/syllabuses

analysis analyses

diagnosis diagnoses

oasis oases

thesis theses

crisis crises

phenomenon phenomena

criterion criteria

datum data

Some nouns ending in 'f' require that you change the 'f' to a 'v' and then add an 'es' at the end to make them plural.
For example, you might have not just one elf sneaking into your house on Christmas night, but two elves.
The English language loves to have exceptions, though, so the houses in your neighborhood have roofs, not rooves,
and your wacky old uncle has crazy beliefs, not believes.
Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural.

EXAMPLES

Singular Plural

sheep sheep

fish fish
Singular Plural

deer deer

species species

aircraft aircraft

IRREGULAR VERB/NOUN AGREEMENT

Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb.

Plural nouns used with a singular verb Sentence

news The news is at 6.30 p.m.

athletics Athletics is good for young people.

linguistics Linguistics is the study of language.

darts Darts is a popular game in England.

billiards Billiards is played all over the world.

Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb. They are not used in the singular, or they have a different
meaning in the singular. Nouns like this include: trousers, jeans, glasses, savings, thanks, steps, stairs, customs,
congratulations, tropics, wages, spectacles, outskirts, goods, wits

Plural noun with plural verb Sentence

trousers My trousers are too tight.

jeans Her jeans are black.

glasses Those glasses are his.

Verb: Refer the lesson 2- Single Sentences

Adjectives (නාම විශේෂණ): Refer wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective

Adverbs: Refer the above Wikipedia link for the adjectives and
lesson 3- Dual Combined sentences: Conjunctions, conjunctive
clauses and reported speech (We may bring you another separate
lesson called “5 ways of making adverbial phrases” in the future.)

Affixes: suffixes and prefixes: Refer Wikipedia and other sources.

Prepositions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
And also, go through each and every preposition under this awesome reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_prepositions

Articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_(grammar)
Helping verb, Auxiliary verb: Refer lesson 2: Single sentences

Conjunctions, Conjunctive clause, relative clause, interrogative

clause: Refer lesson 3: Dual Combined Sentences

Interjection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interjection
Exclamation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation