The Editor’s Manual
Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
A gerund is a verb form ending in “-ing” that functions as a noun. It can act as subject, object of a verb or a preposition, and subject or object complement. It exhibits both noun- and verb-like qualities.
Form the plural of a given or a family name by adding “s.” If the name ends in a sibilant sound (like “s,” “x,” “z”), add “es” instead.
Regular plurals are formed by adding “-s,” “-es,” or “-ies” to the singular (“girls,” “viruses,” “duties”). Irregular plurals also often follow a pattern, originating sometimes in the parent language or rules of older forms of English (e.g., “children,” “criteria,” “mice”).
A gerund is a verb form ending in “-ing” (“baking,” “swimming,” “dancing”) that acts as a noun.
Possessive forms of nouns (with an apostrophe either before or after an “s”) and pronouns (without an apostrophe) indicate a relationship of belonging.
Count nouns have singular and plural forms (e.g., star/stars). Mass nouns are thought of in terms of quantity rather than number of units, and have no distinct singular and plural forms (e.g., milk, excitement, oxygen).
Nouns are words used to identify people, places, objects, and ideas. Nouns can be proper or common, collective, count or mass (or both), and concrete or abstract.