noun

Subjective case

The subject of a sentence is the person or thing that does the action of the verb. Nouns that are the subject of a sentence are said to be in the subjective, or nominative, case. The subject of each sentence is shown in italics in the examples below.

• The car goes.
• The boy pets the cat.
• The girl throws the ball to the dog.
• The student shops for her family.
• The writer gives his friend the notebook.

Objective cases

The object case in English can be divided into three categories. The direct object (in the accusative case) of a sentence receives the action of the verb. It is acted upon by the subject of the sentence. Not all sentences have direct objects. The direct object of each sentence is shown in italics in the examples below.

• The car goes. [no direct object]
• The boy pets the cat.
• The girl throws the ball to the dog.
• The student shops for her family. [no direct object]
• The writer gives his friend the notebook.

The indirect object (in the dative case) of a sentence is indirectly impacted by the action of the verb. It is the person or thing that receives what is being given or done, or the person or thing for which or to which the subject performs an action. However, if that recipient follows a preposition, such as for or to, then it becomes an object of preposition (see below) instead of an indirect object. The indirect object of each sentence is shown in italics in the examples below.

• The child writes her sister a letter.
• The teacher hands the student a marker.
• The writer gives his friend the notebook.
• The car goes. [no indirect object]
• The boy pets the cat. [no indirect object]
• The girl throws the ball to the dog. [no indirect object]

Objects of prepositions follow a preposition and are parts of prepositional phrases. Objects of prepositions are shown in italics in the examples below.

• • The car goes. [no object of a preposition]
  • The boy pets the cat. [no object of a preposition]
  • The girl throws the ball to the dog.
  • The student shops for her family.
  • The writer gives his friend the notebook. [no object of a preposition]

Possessive case

Nouns in the possessive, or genitive, case possess or own other nouns. This is marked by -’s for singular nouns and irregular plural nouns (discussed below). Nouns that have regular plurals show possession with the addition of an apostrophe after the plural -s, thus ending in -s’. For singular nouns that end in -s, both adding -’ and -’s are acceptable as possessives.

Regular plurals

The plural of most nouns is made by adding -s to the end of the singular. The singular cat thus becomes cats, and likewise dog becomes dogs. When a word ends in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, then -es is added instead of simply -s. Thus, box has the plural boxes, and peach has the plural peaches.

In most nouns ending in -y, the final -y becomes -ie when the plural -s is added. Baby thus becomes babies, and family becomes families. However, if a vowel comes before the final -y, such as in the word monkey, the -y is retained in the plural. Thus, the plural of monkey is not monkies, but monkeys. Some exceptions to these rules exist. For example the word money has accepted plural spellings moneys and monies.

Nouns ending in a consonant followed by the letter -o generally take -es in their plural forms. That is, the plural of potato is potatoes, and the plural of hero is heroes. However, both piano and photo take only -s in their plural forms (that is, pianos and photos). Words that end in a vowel followed by an -o add only an -s in their plural forms. Thus, zoo becomes zoos, and video becomes videos.

In most nouns ending in -f or -fe tend to see those change to -v and -ve in their plural form. For example the plural of knife is knives, and the plural of leaf is leaves. There are some exceptions, as with roof and cliff, which have the plurals roofs and cliffs, respectively. Some nouns that end in -f allow for the plural to be made with or without the change to -v. The word dwarf, for example, has both the plural form dwarfs (as seen in the title of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and dwarves (the preferred spelling of fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien).

Irregular plurals

Many plural nouns in English are constructed in ways other than adding -s or -es. Such plurals are called irregular plurals. They often reflect older ways of constructing plurals. For example the words children and oxen are derived from child and ox by adding an -en, which is a variation on a common Old English plural ending -an. Similarly, nouns that change vowel sounds in the plural—such as foot (feet), mouse (mice), and goose (geese)—and those that show no change in the plural, such as moose or sheep, reflect earlier English plurals.

Other irregular plurals are found on loanwords. Loaned nouns are borrowed from foreign languages, notably Latin and Greek, and many keep their original plural form. Rules for these plurals are not rigid—many speakers use regular plurals for a number of these loanwords, for example—and there is occasionally overlap between loanwords in these two languages. However, common ways of making these foreign plurals are noteworthy. The rules for the plurals of Latin loanwords are:

• Nouns ending in -us take -i as their plural. For example, focus becomes foci, and fungus becomes fungi (although the regular plurals focuses and funguses are also acceptable).
• In nouns ending in -is, the ending changes to -es in the plural. Thus axis becomes axes, and crisis becomes crises.
• In nouns ending in -ex or -ix, endings change to -ces or -xes in the plural. For example, index becomes indices, and appendix becomes appendices (although appendixes is the preferred plural in medical contexts).
• Nouns ending in -um take -a as their plural. Thus, datum becomes data, and bacterium becomes bacteria.
• Nouns ending in -a take -ae as their plural. For example, larva becomes larvae, and vertebra becomes vertebrae.

Nouns borrowed from Greek that end in -on take -a as their plural. Thus, the plural of phenomenon is phenomena, and the plural of criterion is criteria. Other Greek loanwords tend to have regular plurals. However, some that end in -s have widely used Latin-based plurals. For example the words octopus and platypus are loanwords from Greek, but they look like Latin-based words that end in -us. Because of this, English-speakers derived the pseudo-Latin plurals octopi and platypi for them, even though the rules for Greek loanwords favor the regular plurals octopuses and platypuses. In Greek these words have plural forms octopodes and platypodes, which are rarely used in English.