A Grammar Rule that you DON'T KNOW (probably)
Transcript:
If you clicked on this video, perhaps, you know, a simple English rule. And that rule is, if you see an ending "s" in the noun, then that means that this noun is plural. For example: one egg, a lot of eggs, one car, four cars. Simple, right? Well, I hate to break it to you, but it's not always true. Stick around to learn more. In the meantime, you can subscribe to the channel, hit the like button and leave a comment down below. This would be very much appreciated.
So today we're going to tackle four words that are gonna confuse the heck out of you. And these four words are: news, headquarters, species and series. In a nutshell, these words are similar to the word "fish". There's one fish in the sea. There are a lot of fish in the sea. The word fish didn't change. The same goes with the words news, headquarters, species and series. Except these words already have the ending "s". So it could be a little confusing. But let's take a look at some examples so you can understand it better.
Let's start with the word headquarters. The headquarters of this company is located in New York City. Now, the plural form. There are many headquarters of different companies in my hometown. So, in the first example we used "is" because the headquarters was in the singular form. And in the second example we used "are", "there are", because the word headquarters was in the plural form. This is a very rare species of birds. Here, the word species is in the singular form. Therefore, we use "is", "this is a very rare species of birds".
There are many different species of birds in Australia. In this example we used "there are", "there are many different species of birds". Because in this case, the word species is in the plural form, not in the singular.
Now the word "series". Plural form. There are many different TV series that you can watch right now. There are many different TV series that you can watch right now. And the singular form. I am addicted to this TV series. In this case, we mean explicitly this TV series. So singular form, this TV series. I am addicted to this TV series.
Now, the word "news". This is an interesting word because it's an uncountable word, an uncountable noun like milk, for example. And even though it has an ending "s", it is always used in the singular form. Like, for example:" I'm coming home. This is good news for my family". You see, the word "news" has an ending "s". But I used "this is",
not "these are" because that would be incorrect. This is good news for my family.
Now, let's combine two words. For example: this species of animals has gone extinct. And this is very bad news. Another combination: my boss is sitting in the headquarters of the company and watching different TV series. My boss is sitting in the headquarters of the company and watching TV series.
Now, because you've stuck around till the end, I'm gonna give you one bonus word. And that word is "means". People often say "this is just a means to an end". About...for example, about money.
"Money is just a means to an end". This means that money isn't the destination. It isn't the goal. It's what takes you to that goal, right? And in that case, "means" is a noun. It's just a means to an end.
I hope that you understood everything and that you will apply this knowledge in your English speaking journey. Thank you very much for watching until the end. Please subscribe to the channel. Hit the like button and leave a comment below. Also, follow me on Instagram. I post different rare vocabulary words and grammar rules to help you to improve your English. I will see you in the next video. Take care, bye for now!
Oh, you're still here? Well, then you can check out this airport vocabulary video and this restaurant vocabulary video. Also, you can watch the video on how to improve your English.
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