It is a computer …
It is an egg …
It is a fork …
John and Mary
John is a bank manager and Mary, his wife, is an air hostess. John works in a bank, but Mary works on an airplane. John wears a suit to work, but Mary wears a uniform. They have a house, but Mary often stays in a hotel. Their house has a garden with an oak tree.
John has a car, it’s an old Ford. He picks Mary up from the airport. Last week he had to wait an hour, so he had a hamburger and a coffee. Mary wasn’t happy because she wanted an evening meal.
‘a’ and ‘an’
Use ‘a’ before words that start with a consonant or consonant sound.
Use ‘an’ before words that start with a vowel or vowel sound.
‘a’ and ‘an’ are called indefinite articles. Unlike ‘the’, they don’t say anything special about the words that follow.
a cat
a dog
a red onion
a buffalo
a big apple
an apricot
an egg
an Indian
an orbit
an uprising
Exceptions
Use an before a silent ‘h’.
an honest mistake
an honourable peace
When ‘u’ makes the same sound as the ‘y’ in ‘you’ or ‘o’ makes the same sound as ‘w’ in ‘won’, then a is used.
a union
a used tissue
a united front
a one-legged man
a unicorn
a unit
Spelling with plurals nouns
| type of noun | rule | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| most nouns | add ‘s’ | cat student | cats students |
| nouns ending in vowel + ‘o’ | add ‘s’ | video radio | videos radios |
| nouns ending in vowel + ‘y’ | add ‘s’ | toy boy day | toys boys days |
| nouns ending in consonant + ‘y’ | drop ‘y’ + add ‘ies’ | baby army | babies armies |
| nouns ending in ‘ch, ‘sh’, ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘z’ | add ‘es’ | church bench brush dish class kiss fox box topaz buzz | churches benches brushes dishes classes kisses foxes boxes topazes buzzes |
Most nouns add ‘s’
students
bags
towels
cats
tables
books
days
days
boys
monkeys
keys
toys
Nouns that end in s, ss, sh, ch, x add ‘es’
buses
dresses
wishes
boxes
Nouns that end in consonant + y change to ‘ies’
cities
dictionaries
babies
countries
man, men
fish, fish
woman, women
sheep, sheep
child, children
mouse, mice
person, people
tooth, teeth
foot, feet
wife, wives