Singular and Plural Nouns – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Choose the correct option (A, B, or C) to complete each sentence.
1 Good morning, everyone. Let’s count how many ______ are in the classroom today.
(a) studentes
(b) students
(c) student
2 First, there is only one ______ in the room, and that is me.
(a) teacher
(b) a teacher
(c) teachers
3 I see five young ______ sitting in the front row.
(a) boies
(b) boys
(c) boy
4 Next to them, there are six ______ writing in their notebooks.
(a) girls
(b) girl
(c) girles
5 So, we have exactly eleven ______ in this room right now.
(a) people
(b) peoples
(c) persons
6 Look at the back row. There is one tall ______ standing near the door.
(a) men
(b) mans
(c) man
7 In the meeting room next door, there are four ______ talking about the project.
(a) mens
(b) men
(c) man
8 Beside the window, I see one ______ drinking a cup of coffee.
(a) woman
(b) women
(c) womans
9 At the main table, there are three ______ looking at their laptops.
(a) womens
(b) woman
(c) women
10 Today, we have a special guest. One small ______ is visiting the class.
(a) childs
(b) child
(c) children
11 On Fridays, the managers usually bring their ______ to the office.
(a) childrens
(b) childs
(c) children
12 We have fifteen people, but I only count fourteen ______. We need one more!
(a) chairs
(b) chair
(c) chaires
13 We also need two more ______ because some students are sharing.
(a) desks
(b) deskes
(c) desk
14 Wait, I think one ______ is missing from the attendance list.
(a) people
(b) person
(c) peoples
15 Okay, let’s write it down. We have ten ______ (pronounced /ˈwɪmɪn/) in total.
(a) women
(b) woman
(c) womens
16 And we have exactly eight ______ (pronounced /men/) in the room.
(a) man
(b) men
(c) mens
17 Please write all your full ______ on this attendance sheet.
(a) name
(b) nameses
(c) names
18 Could someone bring ten clean ______ of water for the guests?
(a) glass
(b) glasses
(c) glasss
19 I will send the final headcount ______ to the principal right now.
(a) informations
(b) informationes
(c) information
20 Thank you for the report! All the ______ are now ready to start the lesson.
(a) people
(b) person
(c) peoples
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (b) students
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Students’ is the correct regular plural form to use after “how many”.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Student’ is singular. “How many” must be followed by a plural noun.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Studentes’ is a spelling mistake.
2 (a) teacher
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Teacher’ is the correct singular form, matching “only one”.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Teachers’ is plural.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘A teacher’ creates a double determiner error (“one a teacher”).
3 (b) boys
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Boys’. For nouns ending in a vowel + y (o-y), we just add ‘-s’.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Boies’ is a spelling mistake where learners over-apply the “-ies” rule.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Boy’ is singular, but the number is “five”.
4 (a) girls
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Girls’ is the correct regular plural form.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Girl’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Girles’ is a spelling mistake.
5 (a) people
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘People’ is the irregular plural form of ‘person’. It is used for counting groups of humans.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Persons’ is very formal and rarely used in everyday spoken English. A1 learners should default to ‘people’.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Peoples’ is incorrect because ‘people’ is already plural.
6 (c) man
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Man’ is the singular form, matching “one tall”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Men’ is plural.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Mans’ does not exist.
7 (b) men
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Men’ is the irregular plural form of ‘man’, matching the number “four”.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Man’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Mens’ is a double plural error.
8 (a) woman
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Woman’ is the singular form, matching “one”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Women’ is plural.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Womans’ does not exist.
9 (c) women
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Women’ is the irregular plural form of ‘woman’. The number “three” requires a plural noun.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Woman’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Womens’ is a double plural error.
10 (b) child
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Child’ is singular, matching the number “one”.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Children’ is plural.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Childs’ is an incorrect regularized form.
11 (c) children
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Children’ is the irregular plural form of ‘child’.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Childs’ is a very common beginner mistake.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Childrens’ is a double plural error.
12 (a) chairs
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Chairs’ is the regular plural form.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Chair’ is singular, but the number is “fourteen”.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Chaires’ is a spelling error.
13 (a) desks
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Desks’ is the correct regular plural.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Desk’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Deskes’ is an over-application of the “-es” rule.
14 (b) person
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Person’ is singular, matching “one”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘People’ is plural, contradicting “one”.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Peoples’ is structurally incorrect here.
15 (a) women
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘Women’ is the plural form. The pronunciation hint /ˈwɪmɪn/ is a major clue, as it sounds very different from its spelling.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Woman’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Womens’ is a double plural mistake.
16 (b) men
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Men’ is the plural form of ‘man’.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Man’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Mens’ is a double plural mistake.
17 (c) names
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Names’ is the plural form. Since everyone has a name, “all your” implies multiple names.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Name’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Nameses’ is an incorrect spelling.
18 (b) glasses
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (b) ‘Glasses’. Nouns ending in ‘-ss’ must take ‘-es’ to become plural.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Glass’ is singular, but the number is “ten”.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Glasss’ is an impossible spelling in English.
19 (c) information
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (c) ‘Information’ is an uncountable noun. It never takes an ‘-s’.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Informations’ is a very common error for English learners who translate directly from their native languages.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Informationes’ is completely incorrect.
20 (a) people
Explanation: – Correct (Key): (a) ‘People’ is the plural of person. “All the…” indicates the whole group.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Person’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Peoples’ is a double plural error.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
- Counting People (The Most Important Irregular Nouns): When reporting a headcount, you must know these irregular changes by heart. Never add an “-s” to them:
- 1 person -> 2 people
- 1 man -> 2 men
- 1 woman -> 2 women
- 1 child -> 2 children
- Pronunciation Trap (Woman vs. Women): * Singular: Woman is pronounced with an “oo” sound (/ˈwʊmən/).
- Plural: Women is pronounced with an “ih” sound (/ˈwɪmɪn/). Note that the “o” changes its sound completely!
- Regular People: Some nouns for people are completely regular. Just add -s:
- 1 boy -> 2 boys
- 1 girl -> 2 girls
- 1 student -> 2 students
- Uncountable Data: When you send your report, remember that the word information is uncountable. You cannot say “informations.”