Singular and Plural Nouns – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Choose the correct option (A, B, or C) to complete each sentence.
1 I have a new school backpack. Inside, I have one ______ for writing my notes.
(a) notebooks
(b) notebook
(c) a notebook
2 I always carry two red ______ to correct my mistakes.
(a) pen
(b) pennes
(c) pens
3 Look! There are three big English ______ in my bag today.
(a) books
(b) book
(c) bookes
4 For my healthy snack, I only have one green ______.
(a) apples
(b) apple
(c) an apple
5 I need to go home later, so I have four ______ on my keychain.
(a) keyes
(b) key
(c) keys
6 I also have a small ______ to help me translate new words in class.
(a) dictionary
(b) dictionaries
(c) dictionarys
7 I am sick today, so I have a lot of ______ to blow my nose.
(a) tissues
(b) tissue
(c) tissuess
8 In the front pocket, there are five ______ for the bus ticket.
(a) coin
(b) coins
(c) coines
9 My pencil case is full! I have ten colored ______ inside.
(a) pencils
(b) pencil
(c) penciles
10 It might rain this afternoon, so I have a yellow ______ with me.
(a) umbrella
(b) umbrellas
(c) umbrelles
11 I cannot read the board without my two ______.
(a) glasses
(b) glass
(c) glasss
12 I am very hungry, so my mom packed two ______ for my lunch.
(a) sandwichs
(b) sandwich
(c) sandwiches
13 I have a lot of ______ in my wallet to buy drinks later.
(a) monies
(b) money
(c) moneys
14 Don’t forget your student ID ______ before you go to school!
(a) card
(b) cards
(c) cardes
15 After lunch, I like to chew three strawberry ______.
(a) candies
(b) candys
(c) candy
16 Oh no! I have too much ______ to do tonight.
(a) homeworks
(b) homework
(c) homeworkes
17 To keep my hair neat, I carry two small ______ in my bag.
(a) brushs
(b) brush
(c) brushes
18 I like to listen to music on the bus, so I always have my ______ ready.
(a) earphone
(b) earphones
(c) earphoneses
19 My friend gave me these cute ______ to put on my backpack zipper.
(a) toy
(b) toys
(c) toies
20 I keep all my important ______ for computer class on this small USB drive.
(a) files
(b) file
(c) fileses
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (b) notebook
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Notebook’ is the correct singular form to match the number “one”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Notebooks’ is plural, which contradicts “one”.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘A notebook’ is incorrect because the sentence already has the number “one”. Saying “one a notebook” is grammatically wrong.
2 (c) pens
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Pens’ is the correct plural form of ‘pen’.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Pen’ is singular. Learners often forget to add the plural “-s” when speaking or writing.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Pennes’ is a spelling mistake. We only add “-s” to this word.
3 (a) books
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Books’ is the correct regular plural.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Book’ is singular, but “three” requires a plural noun.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Bookes’ is an incorrect spelling.
4 (b) apple
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Apple’ is singular, matching the number “one”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Apples’ is plural.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘An apple’ creates a double determiner error (“one an apple”).
5 (c) keys
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Keys’. For words ending in a vowel + y (e-y), we simply add “-s”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Key’ is singular, ignoring the number “four”.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Keyes’ is a spelling error.
6 (a) dictionary
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Dictionary’ is singular, matching the article “a”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Dictionaries’ is plural and cannot be used with “a”.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Dictionarys’ is an incorrect plural spelling anyway.
7 (a) tissues
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Tissues’ is the correct plural. “A lot of” with countable nouns requires a plural form.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Tissue’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Tissuess’ is a spelling mistake.
8 (b) coins
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Coins’ is the plural form of ‘coin’, matching “five”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Coin’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Coines’ is a spelling error.
9 (a) pencils
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Pencils’ is the correct plural for “ten”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Pencil’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Penciles’ is a spelling mistake.
10 (a) umbrella
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Umbrella’ is singular, matching the article “a”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Umbrellas’ is plural.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Umbrelles’ is an incorrect spelling.
11 (a) glasses
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Glasses’ is the correct plural form. Nouns ending in “-ss” take “-es”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Glass’ in singular usually means the material or a drinking cup, not spectacles.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Glasss’ is an impossible spelling in English.
12 (c) sandwiches
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Sandwiches’. Words ending in “-ch” need “-es” to become plural.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Sandwichs’ is a very common spelling mistake because learners forget the “e” before the “s”.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Sandwich’ is singular, but the sentence says “two”.
13 (b) money
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Money’ is an uncountable noun. It never takes an “-s” in standard everyday English.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Moneys’ is incorrect because learners try to count an uncountable noun.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Monies’ is a formal financial term, not used in an A1 context.
14 (a) card
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Card’ is singular. The context “your student ID” implies a single card belonging to the person.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Cards’ is plural, which doesn’t fit a person having one ID.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Cardes’ is a spelling error.
15 (a) candies
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Candies’. When a word ends in a consonant + y (d-y), we drop the ‘y’ and add “-ies”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Candys’ is a common mistake where learners just add “-s” without changing the ‘y’.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Candy’ is singular, ignoring the number “three”.
16 (b) homework
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Homework’ is an uncountable noun in English. It never takes an “-s”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Homeworks’ is a classic mistake. Many languages treat homework as countable, but English does not.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Homeworkes’ is a severe spelling and grammar error.
17 (c) brushes
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Brushes’. Nouns ending in “-sh” require “-es” for the plural form.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Brushs’ is a spelling error; learners forget the “e”.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Brush’ is singular.
18 (b) earphones
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Earphones’ is plural. Items that come in pairs (like earphones, shoes, glasses) are usually plural.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Earphone’ is singular. You usually need two to listen to music properly!
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Earphoneses’ is a double plural mistake.
19 (b) toys
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Toys’. Because the word ends in a vowel + y (o-y), we just add “-s”.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Toies’ is a common mistake where learners over-apply the “-ies” rule to a vowel+y word.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Toy’ is singular, but the word “these” requires a plural noun.
20 (a) files
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Files’ is the correct regular plural.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘File’ is singular, but “all my” implies more than one.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Fileses’ is a double plural error.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
1 The Basic “-s” Rule: To show that there is more than one of something (plural), we usually just add an -s to the end of the noun (e.g., 1 pen -> 2 pens, 1 book -> 3 books).
2 The Vowel + Y Rule: If a word ends in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) + y, just add -s (e.g., 1 key -> 2 keys, 1 toy -> 2 toys).
3 The Consonant + Y Rule: If a word ends in a consonant + y, change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add -es (e.g., 1 candy -> 3 candies, 1 dictionary -> 2 dictionaries).
4 The “-es” Rule: If a word ends in a hissing sound like -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z, you must add -es so you can pronounce it easily (e.g., 1 glass -> 2 glasses, 1 brush -> 2 brushes, 1 sandwich -> 2 sandwiches).
5 Uncountable Nouns (No “-s”): Some words cannot be counted with numbers and never take an “-s” in everyday English. Two very important ones for your bag are money and homework.