Singular and plural nouns: Improve your vocabulary for IELTS

It is true to say that English is an extensive language. Anyone must know how to communicate, write and read in English. It happens at times that people who hardly know the language often speak wrong. Hence, they must first be sure about how they convey their message. It is a must to learn the correct sentence structure for speaking, writing, and even listening. Even the people, traveling to any foreign country need to have a good level of English knowledge.

Correct use of vocabulary for IELTS, nouns, pronouns, tenses, adverbs, and adjectives is essential.

Let us understand the noun singular and plural nouns usage in IELTS speaking, writing, and listening.

What is a noun?

One of the parts of speech in English is NOUN. It focuses on the persons, items, ideas, and various things on Earth. In brief, a noun is just a word that is used for a man, any creature, spot, thing, or even an idea or feeling. They must be rightly used in IELTS modules. You must have a thorough knowledge of these to perform better in exams. Firstly, nouns are of two categories: Singular and Plural.

A singular noun refers to a noun pointing to just one person, one place, or a thing. On other hand, if you are referring to two or more persons, things, or places, you will count it as a plural noun.

In this article, we are going to notice what actually makes a noun a noun. Some samples and some guidance for utilizing things as a part of your sentences will also be provided.

Both singular and plural nouns play a vital role in English grammar sentence structures. It does not matter how easy they look but singulars and plurals are a must for both IELTS listening and speaking. Furthermore, it is almost sure that you may face some questions, whose answers will be plural. It is because IELTS is an English exam and you are required surely observe if you can hear for plurals.

Remember, examiners, do not give you half marks in IELTS. Hence, you must write the appropriate answer without avoiding the ‘s’ with the verb or noun else you will not be scored. For example, if the answer is (books) and you wrote (book), you will end up losing marks for it. Let us now understand plurals in English.

Whenever you wish to change the number of a specific thing, you usually do it from singular to plural. The two kinds of plural nouns are below:

1. Regular: If by adding ‘s’ to the singular noun, you can change the noun from singular to plural, it is said to be a singular noun. For instance, the plural form of the book books.

2. Irregular: The nouns which do not follow the rules of simply adding 's' are known as irregular nouns. For example, the plural of the fish is fishes.

Also read: IELTS Grammar: Modal Verbs For Deduction

IELTS Listening: Which noun will you use? Singular/Plural?

It is very easy to judge which noun will be suitable in the sentence. Some examples of plural nouns are below:

For example, John went to the market at noon to buy some vegetable/ vegetables.

Explanation: Now you have got the clue here. The correct answer must be (vegetables). It is because the quantifier always takes the plural noun with it.

Example 2: Arena is happy to invite all her friends/friend home on her birthday.

Explanation: In the sentence above, (friends) is the correct answer as the determiner (all) always takes the plural noun.

An example of a singular noun:

Example: The boys/boy plays in the city park garden.

Explanation: (boy) is a correct answer since the plural helping verb always follows the singular noun.

Example: I would like to buy a fish/fishes and a chicken piece.

Explanation: Here, (fish) is the right answer since a singular noun follows a singular article in the sentence. Articles a and an always take the singular noun with them.

IELTS Writing:

There are uses of nouns in IELTS writing tasks too. You must know that Noun phrases make sentences more academic. Moreover, the use of noun phrases is not confined to these. Noun phrases are often used as objects with prepositions, adjectives, and IELTS participles. But, there are some other uses for noun phrases. Therefore, it is a must to understand the right uses of noun phrases. It can further help thrive the quality content of academic writing.

Look at the example below to see how nouns have been used in writing task 1,

IELTS Speaking

Undoubtedly, it is crucial to understand how nouns play an important role in IELTS speaking. You need to ensure that you pick the correct forms of verbs with the nouns. Kindly, avoid misusing singular or plural nouns corresponding to helping or action verbs. It often happens that people use ‘s’ with a plural noun while speaking fluently. The examiner is sharp and wise to observe all these errors which you may commit by mistake.

For example, you may want to talk about the garden and its benefits in your speech. You may talk like: I have a beautiful garden just outside my home. The birds (sits) and chirp in the morning. It (give) me positive vibes and refreshes my mind. It is the best area to study my favourite novel.

Correction in the above statement: The birds sit and chirp in the morning. It gives me positive vibes and refreshes my mind.

Conclusion

The IELTS exam is the most important international exam. So, candidates need extra practice and a good level of knowledge to get a good score. Using appropriate grammar, vocabulary words, and sentence structure will help you score better. IELTS online coaching is also beneficial in terms of preparation and training. Dr. Roma Ielts is one of the most recognized institutes to help you improve your IELTS preparation with their best tips and tricks. Moreover, anyone who has zero English knowledge can see the drastic change in his performance.

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