Singular and Plural Nouns Nouns that represent one person, place, idea, or thing are called singular nouns. Nouns that represent more than one person, place, idea, or thing are called plural nouns. Most nouns can be made plural simply by adding –s to the end of the word. The spelling of some nouns changes slightly when the words are made plural, depending on how the word ends. examples plural nouns For most nouns, to form the plural add –s to the end of the word. voyage → voyages taxi → taxis monkey → monkeys cliff → cliffs zoo →zoos If a noun ends in s, sh, ch, x, or z, add –es. arch → arches tax → taxes dish → dishes church → churches waltz → waltzes

For some nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, add –es For some nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, add –es. hero → heroes potato → potatoes mosquito → mosquitoes If a noun ends in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i and add –es. baby → babies worry → worries lady → ladies flurry → flurries For some nouns that end in f or fe, change the f to v and add –es or –s. thief → thieves life → lives leaf → leaves wife → wives

E X E R C I S E 1 Identifying Singular and Plural Nouns in Literature Write the twelve nouns in the following literature passage. Label each noun as either singular or plural. The crazy thing about the whole evacuation was that we were all loyal Americans. Most of us were citizens because we had been born here. But our parents, who had come from Japan, couldn’t become citizens because there was a law that prevented any Asian from becoming a citizen. Now everybody with a Japanese face was being shipped off to concentration camps. from “The Bracelet,” Yoshiko Uchida

1. thing—singular 2. evacuation—singular 3. Americans—plural 4 1. thing—singular 2. evacuation—singular 3. Americans—plural 4. citizens—plural 5. parents—plural 6. Japan—singular 7. citizens—plural 8. law—singular 9. Asian—singular 10. citizen—singular 11. face—singular 12. camps—plural

Possessive Nouns Nouns that show ownership or possession of things or qualities are called possessive nouns. A possessive noun names who or what has something. Possessive nouns can be singular or plural. An apostrophe is used to form the possessive of nouns. To form the possessive of a singular noun, add an apostrophe and an s to the end of the word. examples singular possessive nouns Linda’s picture was in Sunday’s newspaper. (Linda + ’s = Linda’s; Sunday + ’s = Sunday’s)

The possessive of a plural noun is formed two different ways The possessive of a plural noun is formed two different ways. If the plural noun does not end in s, you add an apostrophe and an s to the end of the word. If the plural noun ends with an s, add only an apostrophe. examples plural possessive nouns Golfers were annoyed by the geese’s presence on their course. (geese +’s = geese’s) The neighbors’ children yelled loudly. (neighbors + ’ = neighbors’)

E X E R C I S E 1 Identifying Possessive Nouns Indicate whether the underlined nouns in the following sentences are singular or plural. 1. Yoshiko Uchida’s short story is about a Japanese-American family during the Japanese internment. 2. Japanese Americans’ rights were stripped from them, and they were sent to live in unpleasant camps. 3. Ruri’s family packed everything they could fit into suitcases and left their home in Berkeley, California. 4. Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor caused the U.S. government to send anyone of Japanese descent to internment camps.

5. Laurie Madison, Ruri’s best friend, stopped by the house to say goodbye and give her a bracelet. 6. When the family arrived at the church, the soldiers’ bayonets scared Ruri. 7. The family’s possessions were thrown on a truck, and the family boarded a bus. 8. The barracks’ atmosphere was dusty, dingy, and smelly. 9. Laurie’s bracelet had fallen off on the trip to the internment camp. 10. Mama’s wise advice is that they do not need material things to remember the people they left behind.

After students finish reading the text, we give them a few cloze tests from the linguistically rich paragraphs. Cloze tests as a language teaching tool help students to check their abilities about vocabulary items. Paul Simpson maintains that cloze tests, attempt to impart knowledge about which lexical items are appropriate to which grammatical context, this, of all its applications, is the one that comes closest to getting students to fill in the ‘right’ term for the structural slot. To this extent, cloze test is able to shed a great deal of light on the concept of the lexical set. A lexical set is a bundle of semantically compatible items which are closely linked to a specific topic or register. Although synonyms (and near synonyms) are obvious candidates for inclusion in lexical sets, the concept extends much more widely to encompass clusters of key words which correlate generally with a particular field of discourse. (Simpson, 2003: 85)

Conducting a cloze procedure in a language class will help students to predict lexical collocations which will help them to gain important information about the grammar and vocabulary of a language. When students spot which item collocate with which, they develop their language awareness about vocabulary items. According to Simpson, Most importantly for our present purposes, there is the stylistic application of cloze procedure. In this context, cloze is a productive way of exploring the territory between what we expect to see in a text and what a writer does in a text. It also creates a new focus for interpretation, because it commits students to providing a partial analysis of the text in advance of actually seeing the complete version. In stylistic applications, cloze is most certainly not used as a test of language skills. On the contrary, it simply asks informants for their intuitions about a text—intuitions which can’t realistically be considered ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. (Simpson, 2003: 86)

“Mama, is it time to go?” I hadn’t planned (1)_______ cry, but the tears came suddenly, and I wiped (2)_______ away with the back of my hand. I didn’t (3)_______ my older sister to see me crying. “It’s almost (4)_______, Ruri,” my mother said gently. Her face was filled (5)_______ a kind of sadness I had never seen before. (6)_______ looked around at my empty room. The clothes that (7)_______ always told me to hang up in the closet, (8)_______ junk piled on my dresser, the old rag doll (9)_______ could never bear to part with—they were all gone. (10)_______ was nothing left in my room, and there was (11)_______ left in the rest of the house. The rugs (12)_______ furniture were gone, the pictures and drapes were down, (13)_______ the closets and cupboards were empty. The house was (14)_______ a gift box after the nice thing inside was (15)_______; just a lot of nothingness.