Articles: A, An, and Plural Nouns

Hook: In English, almost every singular countable noun needs a little word in front of it: a or an.

Notice: “a cat”, “an apple”, “a university”, “an hour”.

The rule

Use an before a word that starts with a vowel sound (not just a vowel letter): “an hour” (the h is silent), but “a university” (it starts with a “y” sound). Use a before a consonant sound.

For plurals: most nouns just add -s (cats, books). Words ending in -s, -x, -ch, -sh add -es (boxes, buses, watches). Words ending in a consonant + y change to -ies (baby → babies). Some are irregular: child → children, man → men, woman → women, person → people.

Practice

  1. ___ apple (Answer: an)
  2. ___ book (Answer: a)
  3. ___ hour (Answer: an)
  4. Plural of “box”: (Answer: boxes)
  5. Plural of “child”: (Answer: children)

Try it next: our Vocabulary lessons on plural nouns.

Try the Vocabulary Lessons →

This lesson builds the basic noun phrases every other A1 sentence depends on.

Azizul Hakim
Latest posts by Azizul Hakim (see all)
PreviousNext