How to Use Singular Nouns

A noun is the part of speech that refers to a person, place or thing. Singular nouns refer to one person, one place or one thing, versus plural or collective nouns. Each sentence must be analyzed to determine whether the noun is singular or plural so the correct verb or pronoun can be used.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Identify the noun in the sentence. The noun may be the subject or object of the sentence, or the object of a prepositional phrase.
2. Determine if the noun is singular, plural or collective. Collective nouns look like singular nouns but represent more than one person or thing acting together such as jury, team, France and the Eastern Bloc.
3. Study the topics that are considered singular. Titles of novels, operas, plays or other literary works are considered singular. For example, "The Martian Chronicles," a book by author Ray Bradbury, is singular.
4. Teach yourself that some expressions of quantity are considered singular. Feet, miles, dollars and pounds are generally expressed as singular nouns as in, "Twenty-six miles is way too far to run for fun."
5. Use singular verbs and pronouns with singular and collective nouns. Use plural verbs and pronouns with plural nouns.
6. Familiarize yourself with count and non-count nouns. Count nouns can become plural nouns by adding an "s." For example, "car" becomes "cars" by adding an "s.". Non-count nouns are always in singular forms; for example, homework, honesty and milk are always used in singular form.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't trust word processing grammar checking functions; grammar check may catch some singular/plural errors, but may also miss errors with collective nouns.