EF

Nouns

Gender

In English nouns rarely change form, even to indicate gender. As a general rule, only nouns referring to people and some animals reflect gender in their form. By the same token, unlike many other languages, the adjectives modifying nouns will remain unchanged.

Example:

My poor little dog died.

However, certain nouns -- especially those referring to people -- may have different forms to indicate masculine or feminine usage:

man -- woman
gentleman -- lady
actor -- actress
uncle -- aunt
father -- mother

The same can be said of certain male and female animals:

a buck, a doe
a ram, a ewe
a bull, a cow
a stallion, a mare

In other cases, the word "male" or "female" is added, if it is considered necessary to be specific:

a female cat
a male giraffe

Note: If the gender of the person or animal is known, one will generally use the pronoun "he" or "she" to refer to it, as appropriate. When the gender is left unstated, the pronoun "he" is generally used when speaking of people, or "it" when speaking of animals. Some objects are also considered to be gendered in certain usages: some people may refer to a boat or a car as "she."

Certain nouns (especially the names of professions) are traditionally associated with men or women, in which case one signals exceptions to the tradition by adding "woman" (or "lady") or "man" to the term:

They are in a group of male dancers.
My wife prefers to see a woman doctor.

Plurals

As a general rule, the plural is formed by adding "-s" to the singular form of nouns.

shoe --> shoes
book --> books
river --> rivers

Nouns ending in "s" or "s" will generally take the ending "-es" :

bus --> buses
kiss --> kisses

Words ending in "y" will generally take the ending "-ies" in place of the "y":

party --> parties
supply --> supplies

Certain words have very irregular forms in the plural:

one man --> two men
one woman --> two women
one person --> two people
one foot --> two feet
one mouse --> two mice
one goose --> two geese
one tooth --> two teeth
one wife --> two wives
one child --> two children
one knife --> two knives
one thief --> two thieves
one dwarf --> two dwarves (ou: dwarfs)
one potato --> two potatoes
one leaf --> two leaves
one life --> two lives
one loaf --> two loaves
one half --> two halves

A small set of words do not change form in the plural:

one moose --> two moose
one sheep --> two sheep
one aircraft --> two aircraft

Words of Greek or Latin origin which have retained their original endings will generally take the plural form associated with the language they are drawn from:

one alumnus --> two alumni
one syllabus --> two syllabi
one alumna --> two alumnae
one alga --> many algae
one criterion --> many criteria
one forum --> many fora (or : forums)
one thesis --> two theses
one hypothesis --> two hypotheses
one phenomenon --> two phenomena
one cactus --> two cacti (or : cactuses)
one diagnosis --> two diagnoses
one oasis --> two oases
one analysis --> two analyses

A few nouns are invariable or collective, always indicating a plural meaning:

She gave me some information.
Michelle has a lot of clothes.

Capital letters

Certain nouns are generally capitalized, including: days of the week and months; names of holidays, cities (or states, etc.) and religions; nouns of nationality:

Minneapolis
Jewish
Monday
April

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