With most English nouns, you simply add an "s" to make the noun plural. The singular word for "noun" is "noun," and if you want to describe more of them, you just add an "s" to make it plural: "nouns." Sometimes there are irregular plurals with no "s," such as the singular "man" becoming the plural "men."

However, there are a number of nouns in English which cannot really be counted and are never used in plural form with an "s" ending. These are called mass nouns (or sometimes "uncountable nouns"). The Oxford Dictionary describes a mass noun as "a noun denoting something that cannot be counted (e.g. a substance or quality), in English usually a noun which lacks a plural in ordinary usage and is not used with the indefinite article."

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Children often make the mistake of adding "s" to mass nouns, which is cute but also shows that it's not so easy to understand their usage. "Mommy, look at all the sheeps!" and "I really like to eat spaghettis!" are cute, but unfortunately grammatically incorrect!

You have a sheep and a hippo? -Yeah.

Caption 58, Jimmy Kimmel: Lie Detective

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A herd of bighorn sheep ends up blocking traffic on their way to a better grazing ground.

Caption 1, The Last Paradises: America's National Parks

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"Sheep" is a mass noun and there is no such word as "sheeps": One sheep, two sheep, three sheep.

They can play chess, if they wish.

Caption 30, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: BBC TV Movie

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The noun "chess" is not used in a plural sense at all. You can have "games of chess," "chess sets," or "chess boards," but in these cases, "chess" is being used as an adjectival describer and the nouns being described are the plurals.

Would you like to sample our vegan bacon?

Caption 1, Parks and Recreation: Best of Ron & April

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The only way to suggest "bacon" in singular form is to combine it with other descriptions such as "a piece of bacon" or a "little bit of bacon."

All spaghetti spoons have a hole in the bottom.

Caption 60, Facts Verse: 10 Things You Did Not Know The Use For

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With "spaghetti" too, you can have "lots of spaghetti" but not "spaghettis."

Thank you for showing your support for women's rights.

Caption 4, A message from Prince Harry: at the CHIME for Change concert

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You may see the word "supports" with an "s" in verb form, as in "Prince Harry supports women's rights." You also see it in a different meaning for the noun, such as "the steel supports for the building." But when you are talking about the kind of support that means you are giving approval, comfort, or encouragement to someone or something, then it's always a mass noun.

Further Learning
Go to Yabla English and study the captions in the videos above to get a better idea of the contexts in which mass nouns have been used. You can also go to this site and see a long list of mass nouns.

Most words in English are made plural by simply adding the letter "s" to the end. Sometimes, if the word ends with a vowel such as "y," then it changes to "ies" when plural (one baby, many babies, one country, many countries). Sometimes words ending in consonants add "-es" for the plural (one coach, many coaches).

I've noticed that some non-native English speakers have mother tongues that don't include a sound similar to the letter "z" as pronounced in English. This makes it very difficult for them to pronounce the "z" sound. This sound is made with the top of the tongue vibrating against the middle of the palate and makes a buzzing "zzzzzz" sound like the sound a bee makes. 

Most English words use this "z" pronunciation on the plural "s." If you accidentally pronounce some English plurals with the "s" sound instead of the proper "z" sound, it could lead to some misunderstandings, as there are other words in English that are spelled differently, but sound the same (they are called homophones):

And it makes your eyes look different.

Caption 9, Adele at the BBC - When Adele Wasn't Adele... But Was Jenny!

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If you accidentally pronounce "eyes" with the "s" sound instead of the "z" sound, a native English speaker may misunderstand the sentence as "And they made your ice look different."  This is because "eyes" spoken falsely with the "s" pronunciation sounds exactly the same as "ice." It's a similar situation here: 

Oh yes, all they think of is spies, and the war, of course.

Caption 50, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - BBC TV Movie

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If the last "s" in "spies" is not pronounced correctly, it will sound the same as the word "spice." There are a number of homophones that could lead people to misunderstand what you are saying if you mispronounce the plural "s," such as "tries" ("trice"), "lies" ("lice"), and "plays" ("place"). 

There are, however, English words ending in certain consonants where the plural "s" is indeed pronounced "s," and not "z." These are mostly words that end in "k," "p," and "t." The reason why the plural "s" cannot sound like a "z" in these words is because it tends to make these consonants sound like different consonants if you use the "z" sound: 

The backs are the sleek, faster-running players.

Caption 13, Rugby - 101

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Now, people have literally no idea how to access water from modern taps.

Caption 55, BBC Comedy Greats - Michael McIntyre on Google Earth

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Where we all share our best bits, but leave out the emotion.

Caption 14, Look Up - A Spoken Word Film for an Online Generation

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If you try to pronounce the words highlighted above with the plural "s" pronounced incorrectly as "z," you'll see that they sound like different words: "backs" becomes "bags," "taps" becomes "tabs," and "bits" becomes "bids."

So remember: most English plurals ending in "s" have the "s" pronounced as a "z," except for words ending with "k," "p," and "t."  Let's call this the KPT rule!

Further Learning
Have a tandem partner who is a native English speaker open a dictionary at random and pick out a word for you to pronounce as a plural word. They may occasionally find plurals that don't end in "s," but this will be the exception. They can also find words for you that end with "k," "p," and "t" to test you. Try to remember the KPT rule and you should get the pronunciation right every time! 

Thanks to you all for reading this, keep up the good work! If you have any good ideas for lesson topics, please email them to us at newsletter@yabla.com, and you can tweet us @yabla.

In grammatica e in linguistica, il sostantivo è la parte di un discorso che indica una singola persona, un singolo animale o una singola cosa, o una classe di persone, animali o cose. La formazione del plurale di un sostantivo è diversa in ogni lingua.
 

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In inglese la maggior parte dei sostantivi forma il plurale aggiungendo una -s alla fine della parola:

pen: pens (penne)
spoon: spoons (cucchiai)
table: tables (tavoli)
letter: letters (lettere)
window: windows (finestre)

I sostantivi che terminano in tch, ch, s (o ss), o x formano il plurale aggiungendo il suffisso –es:
 

tax: taxes (tasse)
match: matches (partite)
bus: buses (autobus)
business: businesses (imprese)
sandwich: sandwiches (panini) 

Alcuni sostantivi che terminano con f formano il plurale perdendo la f  e aggiungendo il suffisso -ves:
 

shelf: shelves (scaffali)
knife: knives (coltelli)
self: selves (stessi - sé stessi)
thief: thieves (ladri)

I have one scarf around my neck and two scarves in my hands.

Ho una sciarpa attorno al mio collo e due sciarpe nelle mie mani.

Caption 20, The Alphabet - the Letter F

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Alcuni sostantivi che terminano con una consonante seguita da y formano il plurale perdendo la y e aggiungendo –ies:

baby: babies (bebè, bambini piccoli)
university: universities (università)
sky: skies (cieli)

Bear cubs love to snuggle just like human babies.

I cuccioli di orso adorano coccolarsi proprio come i bambini piccoli

Caption 37, Nature & Wildlife - Search for the Ghost Bear - Part 2

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And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.

E trasformeremo le nostre scuole, i [nostri] licei e università per andare incontro alle richieste di una nuova era.

Captions 37-38, Barack Obama's Inauguration Day - Obama's Speech - Part 2

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Ma quando la y è preceduta da un’altra vocale, allora il plurale si forma aggiungendo la –s:

boy: boys (ragazzi)
monkey: monkeys (scimmie)

I sostantivi che terminano in “o” sono irregolari. Alcuni prendono la -s, altri il suffisso -es.

photo: photos (foto)
hero: heroes (eroi)

How can Zero be a hero?

Come può Zero essere un eroe?

Well, there are all kinds of heroes you know.

Be', ci sono molti tipi di eroi, sai.

Captions 4-5, Schoolhouse Rock - My Hero, Zero

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In alcuni casi entrambe le desinenze possono andar bene:

fresco: frescos, frescoes (affreschi)
zero: zeros, zeroes (zeri)

Ci sono altri modi per fare il plurale di un sostantivo, ma li vedremo nella prossima lezione.
Sei in grado di formare il plurale delle seguenti parole?

a key (una chiave) - two ________
a hobby (un hobby) - two_________
a wolf (un lupo) - two_________
a cable (un cavo)  - two___________
a cup (una tazza) - two __________
a batch (una partita) - two________

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P.S. Already know some English? English lessons in English may be found here.

A countable noun is a common noun that has singular and plural forms and can be modified by a number.

The opposite of a common noun is called a mass noun, which does not have different singular and plural forms, nor can it be modified by a number.

As a general rule, words referring to objects and people are countable nouns, and words referring to liquids (water, juice), powders (sugar, sand), and substances (metal, wood) are mass nouns.

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When you travel you have two suitcases. Suitcases are the same as luggage, but you cannot say "two luggages" as luggage is a mass noun. When you travel you have luggage, or two pieces of luggage. Mass nouns use measure words like pieces of to make plurals.

You want to build a bookshelf so you buy eight boards made of wood. "Wood" is a mass noun, so it is incorrect to say you have "eight woods," but you can say you have eight pieces of wood.

Here is a list of some more mass nouns: advice, air, art, blood, butter, data, deodorant, equipment, evidence, food, furniture, garbage, graffiti, grass, homework, housework, information, knowledge, mathematics, meat, milk, money, music, notation, paper, pollution, progress, sand, soap, software, sugar, traffic, transportation, travel, trash, water

There are some words that are both countable nouns and mass nouns. You leave some papers on the desk, by which you mean you leave some specific documents. If you leave some paper on the desk, you mean you left a package of paper or just some paper in a general sense.

Further Learning
Search for some mass nouns on Yabla English and see how they are used in context.

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A noun is a word for a person, place, or thing that can be the subject of a verb. One of the first things you learn in a new language are nouns. Different languages have different ways to make a singular noun plural.

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In English, the most common way to make a noun plural is to add the letter s:
pen: pens
spoon: spoons
table: tables
letter: letters
window: windows

Nouns ending in tch, s (or ss), or x are often made plural with the letters es:
tax: taxes
match: matches
bus: buses
business: businesses

Some nouns ending in f replace the f with v, ending in ves:
shelf: shelves
knife: knives
self: selves
thief: thieves

Some nouns have irregular plurals:
man: men
woman: women
child: children
foot: feet
ox: oxen

Some nouns ending in y drop the y and are made plural with ies:
university: universities
baby: babies
But if the y has another vowel before it, then usually the plural is made by adding s:
boy: boys
monkey: monkeys

Nouns ending in o are irregular. Some end with s, some with es, and some work with both:
hero: heros or heroes
volcano: volcanos or volcanoes

Some nouns have the same singular and plural forms, and most of these are animals: moose, deer, fish, swine

Further Learning
This example from Yabla English has 5 different plural nouns, including two that are irregular:

We have brought a set of consulting tools

that include analyses, evaluation criteria,

business processes and governance recommendations.

Captions 9-11, Planview and Kalypso - Partner to Drive Innovation

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Try to correctly change the four nouns to their singular form and check your work to see if you converted the two irregular nouns correctly.

For even more plurals, watch the Yabla English video English with Lauren and Matt - Parts of the Human Body.