English

Homonyms

Homonyms have characteristics of both homophones and homographs. As we mentioned, they are words that
are spelled alike (like homographs) and sound alike (like homophones). Homonyms are a special case, and
they are best thought of as the center portion of a Venn diagram that shows the overlap between homophones
in one half and homographs in the other.

Other examples:
bear (an animal)/bear (to withstand or hold up)
can (a metal container)/can (able to)
mean (average)/mean (not nice)

Common and Proper Nouns

Proper Nouns
- Nouns that pertains to specific people, places, things or ideas. Since these nouns are naming specific things, they
always begin with a capital letter.
Ex;
Britney, Paris, Rizal Park, Luneta

Common Nouns
- These noun are generic nouns. They name people, places, things or ideas that are not specific.
Ex;
Woman, city, dog, shoe

Plural Form of Nouns

Nouns ending in -y

If the noun ends with a consonant plus -y, make the plural by changing -y to -ies:

singular plural
berry berries
activity activities
daisy daisies

If the noun ends with -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, add -es to form the plural:

Singular plural
church churches
bus buses
fox foxes

Theres one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a k sound, you add -s rather than -es:

singular plural
stomach stomachs
epoch epochs

Nouns ending in -f or -fe

With nouns that end in a consonant or a single vowel plus -f or -fe, change the -f or -fe to -ves:
singular plural
knife knives
half halves
scarf scarves

Nouns which end in two vowels plus -f usually form plurals in the normal way, with just an -s

Singular plural
chief chiefs
spoof spoofs

Nouns ending in -o

Nouns ending in -o can add either -s or -es in the plural, and some can be spelled either way.

As a general rule, most nouns ending in -o add -s to make the plural:

singular plural
solo solos
zero zeros
avocado avocados

Those which have a vowel before the final -o always just add -s:
singular plural
studio studios
zoo zoos
embryo embryos

Heres a list of the most common nouns ending in -o that are always spelled with -es in the plural:
Singular plural
buffalo buffaloes
domino dominoes
echo echoes
embargo embargoes
hero heroes
mosquito mosquitoes
potato potatoes
tomato tomatoes
torpedo torpedoes
veto vetoes