Grammar Tip: Plural Nouns
January 13th, 2009
Even with something as simple as making nouns possessive and plural, grammarians can disagree. I wish it was as simple as just add “s” or “es.” And it almost is. We’ll handle the exceptions next week.
As usual, we use Michael Strumpf’s “The Grammar Bible” as our guide, and we don’t lose sleep over it.
To make numbers plural, just add an s:
- That sounds like music from the 1980s.
- Gary bought a few 747s for posterity.
To make most nouns plural, just add “s” or “es”:
- I like my dog. Dogs are cool. I have two.
- I have a box. I have boxes.
- How many picnics have you been to this year?
Because we believe in little bits of grammar at a time, and I don’t want our heads to explode, I’ll save the exceptions of plural and possessive nouns for later. Trust me, you’ll want to bring a friend.