Articles: A, An, and Plural Nouns

Hook

Look around you: a chair, a window, an apple, two books. In English, almost every singular thing you can count needs a small word in front of it: a or an. And when there is more than one, the word usually changes at the end. Get these two small things right and your English immediately sounds more natural.

Notice

  • I have a cat and a dog.
  • She eats an apple every day.
  • He is an engineer. She is a doctor.
  • It takes an hour. (h is silent)
  • She studies at a university. (u sounds like “you”)
  • Two cats, three boxes, two babies, four children.

Look at an hour and a university. Is the choice about the first letter or the first sound?

Rule

a or an? It depends on the first sound, not the letter:

  • a + consonant sound: a book, a pen, a university (“you”), a uniform, a European
  • an + vowel sound: an apple, an egg, an idea, an orange, an umbrella, an hour (silent h), an honest man

Use a/an with jobs: She’s a nurse. Don’t use a/an with plurals or uncountable nouns (water, rice).

Plurals:

RuleExamples
most nouns: + sbook → books, car → cars
-s, -ss, -x, -ch, -sh: + esbus → buses, box → boxes, watch → watches, dish → dishes
consonant + y: y → iesbaby → babies, city → cities (but boy → boys)
-f / -fe: → vesknife → knives, wife → wives
irregularman → men, woman → women, child → children, person → people, foot → feet, tooth → teeth

Watch Out

  • ✗ a apple → ✓ an apple
  • ✗ an university → ✓ a university (it starts with a “you” sound)
  • ✗ She is doctor. → ✓ She is a doctor. (jobs need a/an)
  • ✗ two childs / two persons → ✓ two children / two people (irregular)

Practice

  1. ___ apple
  2. ___ book
  3. ___ hour
  4. ___ university
  5. He is ___ engineer.
  6. Plural of box
  7. Plural of city
  8. Plural of child
Show the answers
  1. an
  2. a
  3. an
  4. a
  5. an
  6. boxes
  7. cities
  8. children

Your Turn

Look around the room. Write six things you can see with a or an (a lamp, an umbrella…). Then write three sentences with plurals: There are two windows.

Connect

Our Grammar Quiz includes quick a/an and plural questions at A1.

Try our Grammar Quiz →

Practise tricky plural spellings like babies and knives in our Spelling Quiz.

Try our Spelling Quiz →

CEFR A1 — Reading: I can understand familiar names, words and very simple sentences, for example on notices and posters.

Azizul Hakim
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