A / An & Plurals

We usually put "a" or "an" meaning one before singular countable nouns.

We put "an" before singular nouns that begin with a vowel sound. Vowel sounds are the sounds that typically come from the five vowel letters in the English alphabet: A, E, I, O, and U.

We put "a" before singular nouns that begin with a consonant sound. Consonant sounds typically come from consonant letters in the English alphabet: B, C, D, F, G, H ... and Z.

We must pay attention to the first sound of a noun, not just the first letter. Sometimes a vowel letter can have a consonant sound at the beginning of a word.

Sometimes a consonant letter can have a vowel sound at the beginning of a word.

To make a plural noun, we usually add "s" to the end of the noun.

To pluralize nouns that end in a consonant letter followed by "y", we change the "y" to "i" and add "es".

To pluralize nouns that end in "ch", "sh", "x", "z" and "s" we add "es".

Some nouns have irregular plural forms that do not follow the rules mentioned earlier. In these cases, we must memorize their plural forms.