iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality of study project report………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… ii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………… ………… iii
Table of contents……………………………………………………………………….….iv
List of tables and charts……………………………………………………………… .vii

PART I- INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 1
1. Rationale…………………………………………………………………… ….1
2. Aims of the study…………………………………………………………… 1
3. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………… 2
4. Methodology……………………………………………………………… … 2
The subjects……………………………………………………….…… …2
The instruments……………………………………………….…… 3
The procedures…………………………………………….……………….3
Data analysis…………………………………………………………… …4
5. Design of the study…………………………………………………………… 4

PART II- DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………………….… 5
Chapter 1- Literature Review………………………………………….…………….… 5
1.1. Definition of English nouns………………………………….…………….… 5
1.2. Classification of nouns…………………………………………………… … 5
1.2.2. Proper nouns……………………………………………………… 6
1.2.2.1. Definition……………………………… ………………… 6
1.2.2.2. Classification……………………………….…………… 6
1.2.3. Common nouns…………………………………………………… 7
1.2.3.1. Definition…………………………………………………….7
1.2.3.2. Classification…………………………………………… 7

3.1.2. The students’ questionnaires…………………………………… …22
3.1.3. The teachers’ interview……………………………………… ……27
3.2. Findings……………………………………………………….………… … 30
3.2.1. No inflectional distinction with singular form… …………… … 30
3.2.2. Subject-Verb agreement…………………………………… …… 30
Chapter 4- Some suggested solutions…………………………………………… …… 32
4.1. Towards the students…………………………………………………… … 32

vi
4.1.1. Using dictionary……………………………………………… … 32
4.1.2. Self-access materials…………………………………………….… 33
4.1.3. Making a vocabulary notebook………………………………… …34
4.1.4. Group work…………………………………………………… … 34
4.2. Towards the teachers………………………………………………………….34
4.2.1. Using effective teaching techniques………………………… …….35
4.2.2. Using vocabulary consolidation as warm-up activities……… ……35
4.2.3. Guiding students’ home revision and give them feedback…… … 36

PART III- CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… … 38
1. Summary of the study……………………………………………………… 38
2. Limitation of the study……………………………………………………… 39
3. Suggestion for further study………………………………………………… 39
References…………………………………………………………………………………41
Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………… I

of life. In our country, at present, learning English is not only a concern but also a practical
need for many people. Therefore, more and more attention of both the general public and
the government has been paid to English learning and teaching at schools, colleges and
universities.
Learning to master a language is a lengthy and effortful process including both learning the
language knowledge: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. and language skills:
reading, speaking, writing and listening. As the final aim of learning language in general
and learning English in particular is communicative, vocabulary is one of the most
essential goals to achieve.
However, how to learn a language, especially its vocabulary effectively is really a problem.
At Hanoi University of Culture (HUC), the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism
often report to have a lot of difficulties in learning vocabulary, especially the number
category. Normally, a noun is marked inflectionally as singular or plural by means of –s
(and other markers such as voicing, -en endings, vowel changes or foreign plural) or Ø
respectively. In some nouns, however, there is no such inflectional distinction (Bache,
1997). Surprisingly, a number of plural nouns in English have no plural endings
(unmarked plural nouns). This is a big problem for students because they cannot realize
these nouns as plural by their forms. It arises even more challenges for students when they
often make mistakes in making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree.
Up to now, no study on this matter has been carried out at HUC. Therefore, the situation
encouraged the author to do a research on ‘Unmarked plural nouns in English and their
difficulties for the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of
Culture’. It is the author’s hope that this study will be really useful for both teachers and
students in teaching and learning vocabulary in general and unmarked plural nouns in
particular.
2. Aims of the study

for the study.
4.1. The subjects
There are two types of subjects participating in the study. The first type is the 1
st
year
students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, and the later is the teachers who have been
working with these students for years.
90 of the 1
st
year students were chosen to take part in a questionnaire survey. They came
from 3 classes in the Faculty of Tourism at the university. They are both male and female,
at the age from 19 to 20 and have learnt English for at least 3 years at high schools.
In addition, 10 teachers who are working with these students were invited to participate in
an interview held by the researcher. They are both male and female, aging from 29 to 50
and have taught at the university for at least 3 years.
4.2. The instruments
In order to ensure the validity and reliability of the study, different tools were used, namely
written test, questionnaires, and interview.

3
Instrument 1: The mid-term test was used as a tool to investigate the difficulties of
unmarked plural nouns in English which the 1
st
year students have to encounter in their
vocabulary learning. This test has much to do with unmarked plural nouns, and includes 4
parts presented in the following order: Gap-filling (10 points); S-V agreement (10 points);
Gap-filling combined with S-V agreement (10 points); and Translation (10 points). (see
appendix 3)
Instrument 2: Survey questionnaires on the 1
st

st
year students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in
English. The interview was recorded for later reference.
4.4. Data analysis
As above mentioned, the data for this study is collected by the mid-term tests, students’
questionnaires, and teachers’ interview. With the mid-term tests, students’ acquisition of

4
unmarked plural nouns in English can be accurately assessed. Information provided from
students’ questionnaires will be categorized, tabulated and converted to percentages for the
convenience of analysis. Moreover, information collected during teachers’ interview is
added to assist interpretation.
5. Design of the study
This study is divided into three main parts:
Part I: Introduction
The Introduction presents the rationale for the study, states what the study is aimed at and
what specific tasks it deals with, and gives the methods by which the study was conducted
together with the organization of the study.
Part II: Development
The Development includes 4 chapters:
Chapter 1 is concerned with the theoretical concepts, classification and grammatical
categories of nouns in English.
Chapter 2 deals with the grammatical features of plural nouns in general and unmarked
plural nouns in particular.
Chapter 3 analyses data collected from the subjects and instruments employed in the
research along with some discussion.
Chapter 4 suggests some solutions which are expected to improve the 1
st
year students’
learning English unmarked plural nouns in HUC context.

- Names of abstract concepts: peace, war, independence, etc.
From my point of view, Tran’s concept of English nouns is more concrete. Therefore, the
definition of English nouns by Tran (2008) is mentioned in this paper.
1.2. Classification of English nouns
Different linguists classify English nouns into different kinds. According to Collins
(1992:444), English nouns can be classified into six main types: count nouns, uncount
nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, collective nouns, and proper nouns. In Thomson and
Martinet’s view (1986), there are four kinds of nouns in English: common nouns, proper
nouns, abstract nouns and collective nouns. Tran (2008) classifies English nouns into 2
main types: proper nouns and common nouns. For the purpose of this study that focuses on
grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English of which collective nouns are
consisted, the classification by Tran (2008) is more general and will be used in this paper.
Let’s look at the diagram to see the classification of English nouns in Tran’s point of view.
Nouns Proper nouns Common nouns

6
(unique reference) (generic/specific reference)
Tom, John, Mr. Smith, etc. Count noun Non-count noun
man, boy, people water, oil, independence

Concrete Abstract
man, boy, water peace, war, independence
The two types of nouns (proper nouns and common nouns) will be discussed hereafter.
1.2.1. Proper nouns

If proper nouns usually refer to unique individuals, places or events in the calendar, all
other nouns are common nouns.
1.2.2.2. Classification of common nouns
According to Tran (2008:16), the most important classification of common nouns is the
distinction between (a) count and (b) non-count nouns.
Count nouns are defined simply by him as those that vary in form. For example:
Singular Plural
man, boy, ox men, boys, oxen
Whereas, non-count nouns can be understood as those that have only one form which is
often used in the singular: water, oil, silver, independence, etc.
Tran (2008) also states that count nouns and non-count nouns can be concrete or abstract:
Concrete Abstract

Count Non-count Count Non-count
man, boy water, gold war, activity peace, independence
1.3. Grammatical categories
Grammatical categories of nouns can be another aspect which needs to be mentioned when
dealing with nouns. Accordingly, grammatical categories of nouns consist of number, case
and gender.
1.3.1. Number
1.3.1.1. Definition
Regarding Tran’s view (2008), number is the grammatical category that divides count
nouns into singular and plural.

For example: Singular Plural
man, boy men, boys
war, activity wars, activities
1.3.1.2. Classification of nouns in terms of number
Tran (2008:17) classifies nouns in terms of number into invariables and variables which
can be seen clearly through the below diagrams.

L +foreign plural : phenomenon

phenomena
E
S
Zero plural: sheep, deer, fish, trout

1.3.2. Case
1.3.2.1. Kinds and choice of genitives
Quirk (1987) and Tran (2008) state that there are 2 genitives: ‘s genitives and of - genitives.
Accordingly, the choice of genitives will depend on whether the noun is of higher or lower
gender classes. The first type is used with nouns of higher gender classes (i.e. the boy’s
name) whereas the second one is used with nouns of lower gender classes (i.e. the wheels
of the car).
1.3.2.2. Genitive meanings
According to Quirk (1987:95) and Tran (2008:18), the meanings of the genitive can best be
shown by sentential or phrasal analogues such as the presentation below.
Genitives
Analogues
(a) possessive possession (my father’s hat)
human relation (my sister’s friends)
My father has a hat.
My sister has friends.
(b) subjective (my father’s permission)
(the arrival of the bus)
My father permits.
The bus arrived.
(c) objective (the criminal’s arrest)
Someone arrested the
criminal.

classification. For the purpose of this study which focuses on grammatical features of
unmarked plural nouns in English, the other grammatical features of plural nouns, such as
spelling rules, pronunciation, rules of plurality making, agreement with verbs, etc. will be
discussed in other studies.
2.1. Definition
In order to define plural nouns, it is necessary to understand the concept of plural in
general. Plural, according to the definition stated in ‘English Language Dictionary’, is the
term used for the state or form of a noun, pronoun, determiner, adjective, or verb when it
refers to two or more people, things or groups.’
Naturally, the concept of plural nouns is based on that of plural. That is ‘plural nouns refer
to more than one person or thing or consist of different kinds of people or things.’

10
(English Language Dictionary)
Another concept of plural nouns is defined by Collins (1990) as ‘There are some things
which are thought of as being plural rather than singular, so some nouns have only a
plural form. For example, you can buy ‘goods’, but not ‘a good’. These nouns are called
plural nouns.’
2.2. Classification
As mentioned in the previous chapter, in Quirk’s view (1987), the English number system
comprises singular, which denotes ‘one’, and plural, which denotes ‘more than one’.
Accordingly, plural nouns in English include both variable nouns and invariable nouns.
The classification will be summarized in the below graph which can be realized more
easily by readers.
N with plural meaning : scissors
Pluralia tantums : customs
Invariables Collective Ns : people
Substantivised adj. (Concrete) : the poor

Regular plural: + -s /-s/ books

(a) Invariables

11
(i) Summation plurals
Quirk (1987) defines summation plurals as tools and articles of dress consisting of two
equal parts which are joined. He also adds that countability of this kind of noun can be
imposed by means of a pair of (i.e. a pair of scissors, three pairs of trousers).
The following is some summation plurals.
bellows tongs pants pliers spectacles shorts
binoculars tweezers pyjamas scales braces suspenders
pincers glasses shorts scissors flannels tights
(ii) Pluralia tantums
Pluralia tantums are defined as nouns that only occur in the plural. (Quirk, 1987:169).
Here is the list of these nouns.
goods quarters remains clothes means suds
belongings lodgings riches earnings outskirts surroundings
brains looks stairs goods particulars thanks (b) Variables
The regular plural is formed by means of an –s suffix. The following table shows the basic
ways of forming the plurals of count nouns. (Collins, 1992: 517)
(i) Regular

Singular form
Plural form
regular

hat
tree

Add –es (/iz/)
bushes
speeches
glasses
boxes
buses

ending in consonant + y country
lady
Change –y to -ies
countries
ladies
Add -s

12
ending in vowel + y
boy
valley
boys
valleys

(ii) Irregular
+voicing (/f/


nuclei
-um ending  -a : aquarium

aquaria

13
-a ending  -e : larva

larvae
-is ending  es : analysis

analyses
-ix or –ex ending : -ices : appendix

appendices
-on ending  -a : criterion

criteria
2.2.2. Unmarked plural nouns
The presentation in this part is to give readers a picture of unmarked plural nouns in
English with the following sub-sections: (1) definition, (2) classification, (3) agreement
with verbs, and (4) some usage notes (if any).
2.2.2.1. Definition
In order to give a definition of unmarked plural nouns in English, let’s compare the two
types of plural nouns to see the distinction between them. Marked plural nouns
Unmarked plural nouns
-s ending (books, beds, boxes)

14
Cattle, people and police are plural words with no singular. They are invariable plural
ones. Therefore, when we refer to a number of things or people, we cannot say ‘polices’,
‘cattles’ or ‘peoples’. In the case we mention a person, for example a person in the police,
we have to say: a policeman, a policewoman or a police officer (not ‘a police’ only).
Agreement with verbs
Obviously, these nouns have plural meanings and always take plural verbs in any cases.
For example:
Cattle are selling for very high prices this year.
(Not: Cattle is selling….)
The police are searching for a tall dark man with a beard.
(Not: The police is searching………….)
People are funny.
(Not: People is funny)
(Swan, 1984)
(b) Unmarked plural nouns which refer to groups of people or things
These nouns are variable ones (e.g: family, team, crew). They can be changed into plural
by just adding ‘s’ to the end. (e.g: families, teams, crews).
However, we do not put these nouns into plural forms when they refer to groups of people
or things. In this case, these nouns are known as ‘collective nouns’.
Collective nouns are special nouns that stand for a group of people, animals, birds or
insects. (Maclin, 1994: 209). Words like committee, public, herd, jury, etc. are collective
nouns.
Collective nouns are defined by Collins (1990) as ‘There are a number of nouns in English
which refer to a group of people or things. These nouns are called collective nouns, for
example: audience, committee, company, government, family, jury, etc.’
Agreement with verbs
Most collective nouns in English have both singular and plural forms. According to the
concord of Subject-Verb in number, collective nouns in plural forms always require plural
verbs. However, collective nouns in singular forms are not the same. Since they are

compares with others. For example:
The class consists of twelve girls and fourteen boys.
The union is the biggest in the country.
(Collins, 1990)
(ii) The plural is more likely when we talk about people’s thoughts, feelings or actions. For
example:
The class don’t understand what the teacher is saying.
The union are delighted with their pay rise.
(Collins, 1990)

16
(iii) In most cases where the individuals composing a group are acting separately, it is
better to use such expressions as the members of the jury, the members of the family. These
expressions sound better and clearly indicate that the individuals are acting separately:
The members of the jury have returned to their homes.
The people in the audience were waving their hands.
(Collins, 1990)
(iv) In the cases where the names of many organizations are collective nouns, either a
singular or a plural verb can be used.

The BBC is sending him to Tuscany for the summer.
The BBC are planning to use the new satellite next month.
England was leading 18-0 at half-time.
England are seeking alternatives for their B team.
(Collins, 1990)
(v) The titles of some works which are collections of stories, etc. can be used with a
singular or a plural verb. For instance:
The Canterbury tales exist/ exists in many manuscripts.
(Collins, 1990)
(vi) Attention should be paid to collective nouns which have notional regular plural but can

brood crew government nobility team
cast data group opposition
According to Quirk (1987), we may distinguish three subclasses of collective nouns:
(a) SPECIFIC: army, clan, class, club, committee, crew, crowd, family, flock, gang,
government, group, herd, jury, majority, minority
(b) GENERIC: the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the clergy, the elite, the gentry, the
intelligentsia, the laity, the proletariat, the public
(c) UNIQUE: the Arab League, (the) Congress, the Kremlin, the Papacy, Parliament, the
United Nations, the United States, the Vatican
(c) Unmarked plural nouns which are formed by ‘the + adjective’
(i) the + adjective
Adjectives like the following are used after ‘the’ to represent a group as a whole such as
the blind, the deaf, the dead, the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the unemployed, etc.
These words refer to a group of people who share the same characteristic or quality. For
example:
the rich = people who have lots of money
the deaf = people who can’t hear
the dead = people who had died

18
These nouns are invariable plural ones. Thus, we cannot say the olds, the youngs, etc. when
we want to refer to more than one person. When we want to convey singular meanings, we
cannot say a blind or an injured. We must say: a blind man, an injured child, etc.
Here are some examples of adjectives which can be used with ‘the’.
+ In terms of social status or economic status
disadvantaged, homeless, hungry, poor, privileged, rich, starving, strong, underprivileged,
unemployed, weak

+ In terms of health or medical care
blind, deaf, dead, disabled, handicapped, living, sick

spoken and written form in both singular and plural. Thus, we can say ‘a fish’ or ‘those
fish’.
Note that fishes exists but uncommon. It is used to denote different individual or species.
For example:
the fishes of the Mediterranean
Quirk (1987) gave some types of fish which do not normally change in the plural
carp pike salmon trout
cod plaice squid turbot
mackerel etc.
Agreement with verbs
These nouns are invariable ones. Thus, we have to depend on the contexts to decide which
verbs are suitable in each sentence. For example:
This sheep looks small.
All those sheep are mine.
(Quirk, 1987)
Obviously, it will be useful for learners to know all the grammatical features of unmarked
plural nouns in English because the acquisition will help learners a lot in widening their
knowledge of English vocabulary in general and unmarked plural nouns in particular as
well as avoiding making mistakes when dealing with unmarked plural nouns, especially in
making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree.

20
CHAPTER 3- FINDINGS
The issues mentioned in the previous chapters only belong to the theoretical category. To
seek for an insight into the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns for the 1
st
year students at
the Faculty of Tourism, HUC both theoretically and practically, this chapter presents the
results derived from analyzing the data collected, thus findings are identified.
3.1. Presentation of data analysis results

38.9%
1.1%
Table 1. The 2
nd
mid-term test
As apparently observed from the table, the number of students who did badly the part Gap-
filling combined with Subject-Verb agreement in the text is the highest, counting for
66.6%, followed by the Subject-Verb agreement part with 45.7%. The first part (Gap-
filling) was done best with the lowest percentage (35.6%) of the students failing. The
number of students who did not pass the Translation part was 37.7%. These figures
indicate that there may be some reasons for the problems. For the first part of the test,
students might not know the meanings of the given words or the meanings of the
sentences, which led to their failure to fill appropriate words in sentences. For the second
one, students were really confused in deciding which verb (plural or singular) to choose.
Since unmarked plural nouns like police, cattle, people, etc. have no inflectional distinction
with singular forms, students could not realize them as plural. Consequently, they often
made errors on Subject-Verb agreement. Furthermore, students had more challenges when
they met collective nouns which can be used with either plural or singular verbs such as
firm, family, orchestra, the BBC, etc. Students had to consider whether the group noun
mentions a single undivided body, or a collection of individuals. As a consequence,
students had difficulty in choosing the right verbs for sentences. The third part seems to be
the most problematic for students because they were required not only to choose the right
noun but also to decide the correct verb (is or are) to fill in the blanks. Compared with the

21
other parts of the test, the number of students who did not pass this part was much higher
(66.6%). The last part deals with the same kind of word with the first one: unmarked plural
nouns formed with the + adjective. There were not any new words, phrases or expressions
in this part. Unfortunately, these students forgot or could not guess word meaning in
contexts. The result showed that they failed in transferring Vietnamese meanings into

this) and know how to pronounce the words (this cause difficulties to only 6.7% of the
students) but more than half of the students taking part in the survey (55.6%) are confused
with the words which have no markers to be realized as plural when they learn English
plural nouns. As a consequence, 17.8% of the students find it hard to make the subject and
the verb of the sentence agree. These may due to the fact that the time allocated is not