Common English Grammar Errors with Plurals

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. We're going to start and end this lesson with a short quiz

to see where you are before, and where you are after. All right? Let's get started.

So, which of these verbs is correct to use in these sentence? In these sentences? Do

we say: "Economics is very important." or do we say: "Economics are very important."?

Okay? Well, we say: "Economics is very important." You'll understand why in a few minutes.

The next one: "The children is asleep." or: "The children are asleep?" Which one is correct?

It should be: "The children are asleep." Okay? Again, you'll understand why.

Last one: "The fish is very beautiful." or: "The fish are very beautiful."? Which is correct?

Well, that's a good question, because actually, both are correct. It depends if you're talking

about one fish or whether you're talking about many fish. And you'll understand that also,

as soon as we go on. So, we could say: "The fish is very beautiful." We could say: "The

fish are very beautiful." I'll explain.

So, in this lesson today, we're going to be talking about irregular plural nouns, which

is an area which is... Which causes a lot of confusion for many students. Many grammar

errors are because of this issue, so it's really good that you're watching so you won't

make this kind of mistake.

So let's look at what the problem areas are. The problem is that normally, when we have

a singular word... Right? So if we say: "the chair", then we use a singular verb. Right?

"The chair is", so that... When that happens, when we use the right noun with the right

verb, then that's called subject-verb agreement. "That chair is in the room." But we say, if

it's plural: "The chairs are in the room." Correct? So this was singular, singular; plural,

plural. That's the normal way. And most of the time, that's absolutely fine. However,

the reason why students get confused is because, unfortunately in English, we also have irregular

nouns, which don't follow those rules and they follow separate rules. But you can understand

it because we can group them in certain categories to help you understand them.

So, first of all, we have irregular singular nouns. So these are confusing a little bit

because they end with "s", but they are singular. They should be singular. So, for example,

we say: "Politics is", "The news is good.", "Mathematics is difficult for some students.",

"Ethics is very important in life." Okay? So don't get fooled by the fact that there

is an "s" there as part of the noun. Okay? It's still singular. So there's one category

of irregular singular nouns.

Next one: irregular plural nouns. Here, there is no "s", but it's plural. "Children are",

"The mice are", "My feet are hurting.", "The men are", "The women are", "My teeth are",

"The geese are". Okay? So here, what was confusing is that there's no "s", and yet, the answer

is that the correct verb to use is that it's... Is "are". Right? Is the plural verb. So that's

the irregular plural nouns.

And then last, we have a category which can be even more confusing, but luckily there's

not too many examples in this category, and these are the irregular unchanging nouns.

What does that mean? That means that whether you have one fish or two fish, you still say:

"Fish". Okay? Generally speaking, that's what you can keep in mind. The same with "deer",

and "sheep", and "moose". "One moose, two moose". You're probably not very likely to

talk so much about moose, but that's how it is.

So if you're, say... If you're talking about one fish, or one deer, or one sheep, or one

moose, you can say: "The deer is very beautiful." But if you're talking about many deer, you

can still say: "The deer are very beautiful." Okay? Depends if you're talking about one

or more than one. So in this case, the noun is unchanging, so that's what causes a little

bit of confusion in this category, because you could use either one, but you still have

to use the right one. Because if you're talking about more than one, you have to make sure

you use the plural verb; if you're talking about one, you use one... You use the singular

one. In a second, we'll do a really short quiz to see how well you've learned this.

So let's do number one. "Those fish is very colorful." or: "Those fish are very colorful."?

Okay? Now, here it's a little bit confusing because I'm saying: "fish", and if you remember

correctly, "fish" was one of those categories which was unchanging, irregular unchanging.

But there is a clue here to tell you which verb to use, and that clue is here in the

word: "those". "Those" by itself is a plural word, so we know that we're talking about

many fish. And so if we're talking about many fish, the correct verb to use is "are". "Those

fish are very colorful." If it said: "That fish", then we could say: "That fish is very colorful."

Next one: "My teeth is hurting." or: "My teeth are hurting."? Which is correct? It should

be: "My teeth are hurting." Okay?

Next: "Physics is fascinating." or: "Physics are fascinating."? Which is right?

"Physics is fascinating."

"The news is so shocking!" or: "The news are so shocking!"? Think about it.

"The news is so shocking!"

"That deer is so graceful." or: "That deer are so graceful."?

Okay? Again, you have an unchanging noun, but you have a clue in the word "that".

"That" is singular, so we have to say: "That deer is so graceful."

Next one: "The women is outside." or: "The women are outside."? Which is correct?

It should be: "The women are outside." Okay?

Now, if you didn't get all of these right, it means you need to practice some more, so

please go to our website: www.engvid.com. There you can do a quiz on this, perhaps you

could watch the lesson again, and really master this area because these three categories,

once you master them, you'll eliminate lots of mistakes that you might make in English

grammar. Okay? Thanks very much for watching, and good luck with your English.