Writing Tip Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #6
Entry posted by Renee Stevens in Writing Tips
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Who's ready for another Grammar Rodeo? Today's Grammar Rodeo is sorta a Part 2 of last weeks. A big thanks to Cia for providing these for the blog. They are a great learning tool and include some great tips and tricks to help authors remember what is best to use. Hopefully you'll find Grammar Rodeo #6 as informative as I did!
Grammar Rodeo #6
Plural Nouns
Last time we talked about plural verbs… now let’s talk about plural nouns. Remember how there are ‘regular’ forms and ‘irregular’ forms? Well, in nouns there are a LOT of both that dictate how you make a noun become plural.
Regular forms:
Adding s: This is the most common form of making a noun plural. Now let’s look at the other ways!
Example: Play becomes plays, book becomes books, poem becomes poems.
Adding es: You use es in words that end with ch, sh, x, or s.
Example: Ax becomes axes, church becomes churches, pass becomes passes
Adding ies: You use ies when a word ends in a consonant and y.
Example: Butterfly becomes butterflies, aviary becomes aviaries. (notice play is just s, since it ends with vowel and y, not a consonant)
Irregular Forms:
Nouns ending in o: Add es (Avocado becomes avocadoes)
Nouns containing oo: Double oo becomes double ee (eg: Foot becomes feet)
Nouns ending in f: Change f to v and and es (eg: Scarf becomes scarves)
Nouns ending in fe: Change fe to v and add es (eg: Knife becomes knives)
Nouns ending in us: Change us to i (eg: Octopus becomes octopi)
Now, many of these have exceptions. Plus you have nouns that stay the same like moose or mouse which becomes mice in a completely random change. As always, when in doubt… check the dictionary!
That vs. Which
Both that and which connect clauses in sentences. The difference is actually pretty easy to figure out. That connects clauses that are dependent on each other, where both parts of the sentence are needed to make sense. Which connects independent clauses, or those that are not essential to the sentence meaning.
Examples:
That: I’m allergic to the trees in the yard that bloom every spring.
Which: The trees in the yard, which bloom every spring, make me sneeze.
Exceptions! What grammar rule exists without these, right? As I mentioned in Grammar Rodeo #5, when you refer to people you use who instead of that. Of course, the exception to this is when you refer to a group—even if it’s a group of people.
Example:
The Secret Service team that flooded the building scared me.
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