Nouns & Pronouns
In short: Plurals, cases, collective nouns and pronoun agreement — with every exam error pattern.
English › Grammar Foundations · 34 min read · Free to read · English & Telugu
Bilingual study notes for the Andhra Pradesh Police SI & Constable exams (SLPRB AP) by AP Police Hub, a product of Anvil Academy.
The two word-classes the exam tests most in error-spotting and fill-in-the-blank: every kind of noun, how plurals and possessives are formed, and how pronouns choose their case and agree with what they stand for — each rule worked as an exam item.
1. Introduction & why it matters
A noun names a person, place, thing, quality or idea; a pronoun is a short word that stands in for a noun so we need not repeat it (*Ravi lost Ravi's pen* → *Ravi lost his pen*). These two classes carry the largest share of marks in the English section, because the paper attacks them from every side: spot-the-error (a wrong plural, a wrong case), fill in the blank (choose the right pronoun or the right verb after a collective noun), sentence-improvement, and match items. This lesson builds every rule as a textbook does — the simple rules first, the exceptions after — and then works each as an exam question.
2. Kinds of nouns
Every noun belongs to one of five kinds. Knowing the kind decides later rules — whether the noun can be counted, whether it takes a plural, and which verb it takes.
The five kinds — with a test each| Kind | Names… | Examples |
|---|
| Proper | one particular person/place/thing (Capital letter) | Ravi, Hyderabad, Godavari, Monday |
| Common | any one of a class of things | boy, city, river, day |
| Collective | a whole group taken as one | team, jury, committee, herd, army |
| Material | a substance / raw material | gold, iron, water, wood, rice |
| Abstract | a quality, state or idea you cannot touch | honesty, bravery, childhood, freedom |
Countable vs uncountable
Countable nouns can be counted and have a plural (*one book, two books*). Uncountable nouns (most material and abstract nouns) cannot be counted, take no plural and take a singular verb: *furniture, information, advice, luggage, scenery, work, money, news*. Use much / little / a great deal of with them, many / few / a number of with countables.
Type — countable vs uncountable
Question: Fill in: “How ___ luggage are you carrying?” (much / many)
- *Luggage* is an uncountable noun — it has no plural and cannot be counted directly.
- Uncountables take much, not many. (You would count it as *pieces of luggage*.)
Answer: much — “How much luggage are you carrying?”
Shortcut: If you cannot put a number straight before the noun (*two luggage* sounds wrong), it is uncountable → use *much*.
3. Number — forming the plural
Most nouns simply add -s. The marks lie in the exceptions — the spelling changes, the irregular plurals, and the words borrowed from Latin/Greek that keep their foreign plurals. Learn the tables below cold; the exam picks its blanks straight from them.
Regular plural rules (spelling)| Ending | Rule | Examples |
|---|
| -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, -z | add -es | bus → buses, glass → glasses, dish → dishes, watch → watches, box → boxes |
| consonant + y | y → -ies | baby → babies, city → cities, lady → ladies |
| vowel + y | just add -s | boy → boys, key → keys, day → days |
| -f / -fe | usually f → -ves | leaf → leaves, wife → wives, knife → knives, half → halves, thief → thieves |
| -f exceptions | just add -s | roof → roofs, chief → chiefs, proof → proofs, belief → beliefs, gulf → gulfs |
| -o (some) | add -es | potato → potatoes, tomato → tomatoes, hero → heroes, mango → mangoes, echo → echoes |
| -o (others) | just add -s | photo → photos, piano → pianos, radio → radios, video → videos, kilo → kilos |
Irregular plurals — learn by heart| Type | Examples |
|---|
| vowel-change (mutation) | man → men, woman → women, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, goose → geese, mouse → mice, louse → lice |
| -en plurals | child → children, ox → oxen |
| same in both numbers | sheep, deer, fish, aircraft, series, species |
| compound nouns (main word pluralised) | brother-in-law → brothers-in-law, passer-by → passers-by, commander-in-chief → commanders-in-chief |
Foreign (Latin / Greek) plurals| Pattern | Singular → Plural |
|---|
| -us → -i | radius → radii, syllabus → syllabi, nucleus → nuclei, cactus → cacti, alumnus → alumni |
| -um → -a | datum → data, medium → media, curriculum → curricula, bacterium → bacteria, memorandum → memoranda |
| -is → -es | analysis → analyses, crisis → crises, basis → bases, thesis → theses, oasis → oases |
| -on → -a | criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena |
| -a → -ae | formula → formulae, antenna → antennae, larva → larvae |
| -ex / -ix → -ices | index → indices, appendix → appendices, matrix → matrices |
Nouns with only one number
Type — choose the correct plural
Question: Give the plural of: leaf, hero, radius, tooth, criterion.
- *leaf* ends in -f → f becomes -ves → leaves.
- *hero* is an -o noun of the *-es* group → heroes (like potatoes, tomatoes).
- *radius* is Latin, -us → -i → radii; *criterion* is Greek, -on → -a → criteria.
- *tooth* changes its vowel → teeth.
Answer: leaves · heroes · radii · teeth · criteria
Type — spot the error (number)
Question: Spot the error: “The teacher gave us (a) many valuable (b) informations (c) about the exam (d) no error.”
- *Information* is uncountable — it has no plural, so *informations* is wrong.
- Also, an uncountable noun cannot take *many*; the correct phrase is *much valuable information* or *many pieces of information*. The flagged part is (c).
Answer: (c) informations → should be information (uncountable).
4. Plurals that change meaning · collective-noun agreement
Some nouns are not just a plural of themselves — the plural means something different. And a collective noun can take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether the group acts as one body or as separate members. Both points are favourite exam traps.
Nouns that change meaning in the plural| Singular means | Plural means |
|---|
| wood = timber | woods = a forest |
| force = strength | forces = troops / army |
| air = atmosphere | airs = affected manners (putting on airs) |
| iron = the metal | irons = fetters / chains |
| content = satisfaction | contents = things inside |
| good = benefit | goods = merchandise |
| manner = a way of doing | manners = polite behaviour |
| pain = suffering | pains = careful effort (took great pains) |
| respect = regard | respects = compliments / greetings |
| quarter = a fourth | quarters = lodgings |
Type — pick the right form
Question: Fill in: “The armed ___ guard our borders, and the soldiers take great ___ to stay alert.” (force/forces; pain/pains)
- *The armed forces* = the army/navy/air force (troops) — the plural, not *force*.
- *to take great pains* = to make careful effort — this idiom uses the plural *pains*, not *pain*.
Answer: “The armed forces guard our borders, and the soldiers take great pains to stay alert.”
Collective-noun agreement
Type — collective + verb agreement
Question: Fill in: “The committee ___ unable to agree; they quarrelled among ___.” (was/were; itself/themselves)
- The clue *they quarrelled* shows the members are acting as individuals, not as one body.
- So the verb is plural (were) and the reflexive matches the plural sense (themselves).
Answer: “The committee were unable to agree; they quarrelled among themselves.”
Shortcut: Look at the pronoun the sentence itself uses — *its* signals singular, *their/they* signals plural. Keep the verb consistent with it.
5. Gender of nouns
English marks four genders. Most items test the feminine pair of a masculine word, or spotting a common-gender word (one that fits both sexes) so the right pronoun can be chosen later.
The four genders| Gender | Used for | Examples |
|---|
| Masculine | males | boy, man, king, lion, hero, actor |
| Feminine | females | girl, woman, queen, lioness, heroine, actress |
| Common | either sex | child, friend, cousin, student, teacher, parent, baby |
| Neuter | lifeless things | table, chair, book, stone |
6. The possessive (genitive) case — the apostrophe
The possessive shows ownership or relation — *Ravi's book*. The whole trick is where the apostrophe sits, and it depends on whether the owner-noun is singular or plural, and whether it already ends in -s.
Where the apostrophe goes| The owner is… | Add | Example |
|---|
| singular noun | ’s | the boy’s bag, the dog’s tail |
| plural ending in -s | just ’ (apostrophe only) | the boys’ hostel, the ladies’ club |
| plural NOT ending in -s | ’s | children’s toys, men’s room, people’s choice |
| compound noun | ’s on the LAST word | my mother-in-law’s house |
| two owners, joint | ’s on the last name only | Ram and Sham’s shop (one shared shop) |
| two owners, separate | ’s on EACH name | Ram’s and Sham’s shops (one each) |
Type — place the apostrophe
Question: Rewrite with the possessive: (a) the toys of the children (b) the hostel of the boys (c) the leg of the table.
- (a) *children* is a plural NOT ending in -s → add ’s → children’s toys.
- (b) *boys* is a plural ending in -s → add only the apostrophe → boys’ hostel.
- (c) *table* is a lifeless thing → keep *of*: the leg of the table (not *table’s leg*).
Answer: children’s toys · boys’ hostel · the leg of the table
7. Pronouns — the kinds
A pronoun replaces a noun (its antecedent). There are ten families; recognising the family tells you the rule that governs it.
The ten kinds of pronoun| Kind | Members | Example |
|---|
| Personal | I, we, you, he, she, it, they (+ objects me, us, him, her, them) | She called them. |
| Possessive | mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs | This book is mine. |
| Reflexive | myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves | He hurt himself. |
| Emphatic | same -self words, used to stress | I myself saw it. |
| Demonstrative | this, that, these, those | That is my seat. |
| Relative | who, whom, whose, which, that | The man who came… |
| Interrogative | who, whom, whose, which, what | Who is there? |
| Indefinite | someone, anyone, everyone, nobody, all, none, few, many, one | Everyone is here. |
| Distributive | each, either, neither (always singular) | Each of them has a pen. |
| Reciprocal | each other (two), one another (more than two) | The two friends love each other. |
8. Pronoun case — subject vs object
A personal pronoun changes form by its job in the sentence. As the subject (the doer) it takes the subject case; as the object (of a verb or a preposition) it takes the object case. This single rule powers the most common error-spotting item in the paper: *between you and I*.
Subject vs object forms| Subject (doer) | Object (of verb / preposition) |
|---|
| I | me |
| we | us |
| he | him |
| she | her |
| they | them |
| who | whom |
Type — choose the case
Question: Fill in: “This is a secret between you and ___.” (I / me)
- *Between* is a preposition, and a pronoun after a preposition is in the object case.
- The object form of *I* is me → *between you and me*.
Answer: me — “a secret between you and me.”
Shortcut: *Between you and I* sounds polite but is a classic wrong answer — the exam plants it to catch you.
Type — Let + object
Question: Spot the error: “(a) Let him and I (b) share the work (c) equally (d) no error.”
- *Let* takes an object; *him* is correct, but it is joined to *I*, a subject form.
- Both must be objects → *him and me*. The error is in part (a).
Answer: (a) → “Let him and me share the work.”
9. Pronoun–antecedent agreement
A pronoun must match the noun it stands for (its antecedent) in number and gender. The traps cluster around words that *look* plural but are singular — *each, every, either, neither, everyone, anyone, nobody* — all of which take a singular pronoun.
Type — fill the pronoun
Question: Fill in: “Each of the girls has finished ___ project on time.” (their / her / its)
- *Each* is distributive and always singular, so the pronoun must be singular — *their* is ruled out.
- The antecedent is *girls* (feminine), so the singular feminine pronoun is her (not *its*, which is for things).
Answer: her — “Each of the girls has finished her project on time.”
10. Reflexive misuse · relative choice · “one”
Reflexive pronouns — do not misuse
A reflexive (*myself, himself…*) is correct only when the subject and object are the same person (*He cut himself*) or for emphasis (*I myself checked it*). It is not a polite substitute for *I* or *me*. *My friend and myself attended* is wrong → *My friend and I attended*.
Type — reflexive misuse
Question: Spot the error: “(a) My colleague and myself (b) have prepared (c) the report (d) no error.”
- *Myself* is used here as a subject, but there is no earlier *I* for it to reflect — it is standing in for *I*.
- The subject form is needed → *My colleague and I*. Error in part (a).
Answer: (a) → “My colleague and I have prepared the report.”
Choosing the relative pronoun
who · whom · whose · which · that| Pronoun | Use for | Example |
|---|
| who | person — as the SUBJECT | The girl who won the prize… |
| whom | person — as the OBJECT (of verb/prep.) | The man whom you met… |
| whose | possession (person or thing) | The boy whose bicycle was stolen… |
| which | things / animals | The book which you bought… |
| that | person or thing, in defining clauses (no comma) | The best film that I have seen… |
Type — who vs whom
Question: Fill in: “The officer ___ we met yesterday has been transferred.” (who / whom)
- Find the verb of the relative clause: *we met*. The pronoun is the object of *met* (we met the officer).
- An object relative for a person is whom. (If it were the subject — *the officer who met us* — it would be *who*.)
Answer: whom — “The officer whom we met yesterday…”
Shortcut: Answer the clause with he/him: if *he* fits (he met us) → *who*; if *him* fits (we met him) → *whom*.
Keep “one” consistent
When a sentence begins with the pronoun one, it must continue with one / one's, not switch to *he/his/you/their*: *One should do one's duty* (not *One should do his duty* in strict British usage). The exam tests this switch directly.
11. Traps & tips · at a glance
One-line recap| Point | Rule |
|---|
| Uncountable noun | no plural, singular verb, use much/little |
| Foreign plural | crisis→crises, criterion→criteria, medium→media |
| Possessive plural | -s plural → apostrophe only (boys’) |
| Collective noun | one body → its; separate → their |
| Preposition + pronoun | object case (me, him, us, whom) |
| Distributive antecedent | each/either/neither → singular pronoun |