Editing for Noun-related Errors: Types of Noun Errors

Plural or Singular?

If you decide a noun should be plural, make sure it has a plural form:

Add an “s” for most nouns. For example:

"books," "students," "cultures," "recipes" 

Irregular nouns have irregular plural forms:

“people,” “children,” “feet,” and “women”

Useful Advice:

Plural nouns lead to fewer errors, so make your nouns plural whenever possible.

You can find more information and practice with noun errors in the resources boxes to the right.

ESL students often have trouble with two kinds of uncountable nouns:

1. “Group” or “category” words, such as equipment, furniture, grammar, research, vocabulary, garbage, and advice are difficult to learn. To learn more about these words, please check the resource column to the right.

2. Abstract words that can be countable in some situations but uncountable in other situations (such as “culture,” “society,” and “experience”) are also difficult. Often, it is safe to treat these words as uncountable nouns.

• However, the most convenient step to take when you are not sure is to look up the word in a good learners’ dictionary (ESL dictionary) to find out when the word is used in a countable way and when it is used in an uncountable way. A good online dictionary is:

www.ldoceonline.com

• Another good editing step is to ask a native speaker how to use any specific abstract word you are not sure how to use. When editing, remember that noncount nouns are treated as singular nouns for subject verb agreement and for pronoun reference.

You can find more information and practice with noun errors in the resources boxes to the right.

A frequent error in ESL writing is a switch between plural and singular meanings of the same noun in sentences and paragraphs. Therefore, if there are nouns at the beginning of a sentence that are plural, make sure the same nouns later in the sentence are plural.

Example with weak plural/singular consistency:

Students should read the textbook before class. This preparation helps the student understand the lecture better.

Revised sentence with improved plural consistency:

Students should read their textbooks before their classes. This preparation helps students understand their lectures better.

You can find more information and practice with noun errors in the resources boxes to the right.

As you carefully check your nouns to decide if they are plural, singular, or uncountable, you also need to make sure each singular noun has the correct grammar in the words around it. Because plural nouns lead to fewer errors, it is safest to use plural nouns whenever possible.

With singular nouns, you need to check for two kinds of problems:

• Determiners/Articles
  • Missing determiners when you have singular nouns is a common problem. The articles a, an, and the are three possible determiners you can use.
  • Plural and uncountable nouns sometimes have determiners and sometimes they don’t. However, all singular nouns must have determiners.
  • The rule is simple: If a noun is singular, it must have a determiner. (The only exceptions are proper nouns or names, such as Vancouver, India, and Mr. Smith)

• Determiners can be classified as:
  • “th” specifiers (the, this, that)
  • possessive specifiers (my, your, her, his, Mary’s, etc.) 
  • quantifiers (a/an, one, any, each, every, either, neither, no, etc.) 

You can find more information and practice with noun errors in the resources boxes to the right.

Another singular noun error is subject/verb agreement. This error is a concern primarily in present tense sentences because agreement errors seldom happen in other tenses (the only exception is past tense “be” verbs -> was, were).

You can find more information and practice with noun errors in the resources boxes to the right.

1. I'll be busy doing some homeworks this weekend.
2. He is seven foot feet tall.
3. Children need sleep every day; sleep helps the child children play.
4. I remember an the advice my boss gave me. 
5. I'm applying to the nursing program.
6. The library lends laptops to students.