Singular and Plural Nouns – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Choose the correct option (A, B, or C) to complete each sentence.
1 Before you eat your dinner, you must wash your two dirty ______.
(a) hand
(b) handes
(c) hands
2 Remember to brush your ______ carefully every morning and every night.
(a) teeth
(b) tooths
(c) tooth
3 You walked in the mud without shoes! Go to the bathroom and wash your ______.
(a) foot
(b) feet
(c) foots
4 Please use a soft towel to clean behind your two ______.
(a) ear
(b) ears
(c) eares
5 You are playing in the dirt. You need to cut and clean your ______.
(a) nails
(b) nail
(c) nailes
6 The dentist says, “Open your mouth wide and show me your ______.”
(a) tooth
(b) tooths
(c) teeth
7 After you run in the park, your ______ get very sweaty. Wash them!
(a) feet
(b) foots
(c) foot
8 You have ten ______, so make sure you use soap to wash between all of them.
(a) toe
(b) toes
(c) toies
9 You have chocolate all over your mouth! Go wash your ______.
(a) face
(b) faces
(c) facess
10 Do not touch your ______ when your hands are dirty. You will get an infection.
(a) eye
(b) eies
(c) eyes
11 Before you go to sleep, you must wash your ______ with warm water.
(a) feet
(b) foots
(c) foot
12 Oh no, your hands are so sticky! Go wash your ten ______.
(a) fingeres
(b) fingers
(c) finger
13 Eating too much candy is very bad for your ______.
(a) tooths
(b) teeth
(c) tooth
14 Use this large towel to dry your ______ after the shower.
(a) hair
(b) hairs
(c) haires
15 My baby boy is growing up fast. He just got his first two ______ today!
(a) tooths
(b) tooth
(c) teeth
16 The shoes are too small, and now my two ______ hurt a lot.
(a) feet
(b) foots
(c) foot
17 Good personal hygiene is very important for all the ______ in this school.
(a) childs
(b) children
(c) child
18 You only have one ______, so blow it gently with a tissue.
(a) noses
(b) a nose
(c) nose
19 Look at your dirty clothes! Go wash your arms and your ______ right now.
(a) legs
(b) leges
(c) leg
20 Please put these two clean ______ on your feet before you wear your shoes.
(a) sock
(b) socks
(c) sockes
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (c) hands
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (c) ‘Hands’ is the regular plural form. The number “two” requires a plural noun.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Hand’ is singular, contradicting “two”.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Handes’ is a spelling mistake.
2 (a) teeth
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Teeth’ is the correct irregular plural form of ‘tooth’. When you brush, you brush all of them.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Tooths’ is a classic beginner mistake of applying regular rules to an irregular noun.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Tooth’ is singular (you don’t just brush one tooth!).
3 (b) feet
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Feet’ is the irregular plural form of ‘foot’. Humans have two feet, so the plural is required here.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Foots’ is an incorrect attempt to make the noun regular.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Foot’ is singular.
4 (b) ears
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Ears’. We just add ‘-s’ to make it plural, matching the number “two”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Ear’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Eares’ is a spelling mistake.
5 (a) nails
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Nails’ is the regular plural form. You have multiple fingernails to cut.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Nail’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Nailes’ is a spelling mistake.
6 (c) teeth
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (c) ‘Teeth’ is the plural form. The dentist needs to check all of them.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Tooths’ is grammatically incorrect.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Tooth’ is singular.
7 (a) feet
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Feet’ is the plural of foot. “Them” in the next sentence confirms we are talking about a plural noun.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Foots’ does not exist.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Foot’ is singular.
8 (b) toes
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Toes’. The word ends in an ‘e’, so we simply add an ‘-s’ for the plural.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Toe’ is singular, but the number is “ten”.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Toies’ is an incorrect spelling (learners sometimes confuse it with the ‘y’ to ‘ies’ rule).
9 (a) face
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Face’. This is a trick question. Every person only has one face, so the singular form is required.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Faces’ is plural, which means you would be telling someone they have multiple faces!
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Facess’ is an impossible spelling.
10 (c) eyes
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (c) ‘Eyes’ is the correct regular plural. You need to avoid touching both of them.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Eye’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Eies’ is a spelling mistake.
11 (a) feet
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Feet’ is the irregular plural form.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Foots’ is incorrect.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Foot’ is singular.
12 (b) fingers
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Fingers’ is the regular plural form for the number “ten”.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Finger’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (a) ‘Fingeres’ is an over-application of the ‘-es’ rule.
13 (b) teeth
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Teeth’. Candy affects all the teeth in your mouth.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Tooths’ is a very common spelling/grammar error.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Tooth’ is singular.
14 (a) hair
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Hair’ is an uncountable noun when talking about all the hair on your head. It does not take an ‘-s’.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Hairs’ is a common mistake for learners because it is countable in many other languages. In English, we only say “hairs” if we find one or two loose strands (e.g., “There is a hair in my soup”).
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Haires’ is completely incorrect.
15 (c) teeth
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (c) ‘Teeth’ is the plural form matching the number “two”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Tooths’ is incorrect.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Tooth’ is singular.
16 (a) feet
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Feet’ is the irregular plural matching “two”.
- Common Mistake: (b) ‘Foots’ is an incorrect regularized form.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Foot’ is singular.
17 (b) children
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Children’ is the irregular plural form of ‘child’. “All the” indicates a plural group.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Childs’ is a very common beginner mistake.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Child’ is singular.
18 (c) nose
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (c) ‘Nose’ is singular. The sentence explicitly says “You only have one…”
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Noses’ is plural, which contradicts having “one”.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘A nose’ creates a double determiner error because the word “one” is already there (“one a nose” is wrong).
19 (a) legs
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (a) ‘Legs’ is the regular plural form.
- Common Mistake: (c) ‘Leg’ is singular. Usually, if your arms are dirty, both legs are dirty too.
- Structural Error: (b) ‘Leges’ is an incorrect spelling.
20 (b) socks
Explanation: * Correct (Key): (b) ‘Socks’ is the regular plural form matching “two”.
- Common Mistake: (a) ‘Sock’ is singular.
- Structural Error: (c) ‘Sockes’ is an over-application of the ‘-es’ rule.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
- Regular Body Parts: Most parts of the body just need an -s to become plural.
- Examples: 1 hand -> 2 hands, 1 ear -> 2 ears, 1 eye -> 2 eyes, 1 leg -> 2 legs.
- The Most Important Irregular Body Parts: Two very important body parts completely change their spelling. You must memorize them and NEVER add “-s” to them!
- 1 tooth -> 2 teeth (NOT tooths)
- 1 foot -> 2 feet (NOT foots)
- Singular Logic: Pay attention to context! You only have one face, one nose, and one mouth, so you usually use them in the singular form when talking about yourself.
- The Uncountable Trap: The word hair (when talking about the hair on your head) is an uncountable noun. Do not add an “-s”. You wash your hair, not your hairs.