English Grammar - Noun: 51 MCQs with Answers

Latin nouns ending in ‑us usually form their English plural by changing that ending to ‑i, which gives radius–radii, nucleus–nuclei and terminus–termini. ‘Genius’ is the exception in the list because it has two plurals with different meanings. When it denotes a person of extraordinary intellect the plural is ‘geniuses’, whereas ‘genii’ is the plural of the sense ‘guardian spirit’ or ‘jinn’, as in the genie of the lamp. Pairing ‘genius’ with ‘genii’ as its ordinary plural is therefore the incorrect option.

'Team' refers to a group of individuals functioning as one unit, which makes it a collective noun.

'Honesty' names a quality that cannot be perceived by the five senses, so it is an abstract noun.

'Ravi' is the name of a particular person and is capitalized, making it a proper noun, unlike common nouns such as 'summer'.

'Flock' is a collective noun referring to a group of birds treated as a single unit.

'Cotton' refers to a substance from which things are made, making it a material noun, unlike abstract (Happiness), collective (Army) or proper (Delhi) nouns.

'Child' has an irregular plural form 'children', not formed by simply adding -s or -es.

'Scissors' is one of a group of nouns (like trousers, spectacles) that denote paired items and are always treated as plural.

Nouns of Greek origin ending in '-is' (analysis, crisis, thesis) form their plural by changing '-is' to '-es': analyses.

'Mathematics', though ending in -s, is treated as singular for subjects, so it must take a singular verb: 'Mathematics is my favourite subject.'