When we think about grammar and sentence construction, one of the most common things that come up is how to form plurals correctly. It’s easy enough to add an “-s” to a noun in English, but what happens when you’re dealing with a sentence like “This is a book”? Understanding how to pluralize sentences like this one can be a little more nuanced.
The Sentence: “This is a book”
The sentence “This is a book” is a simple declarative sentence where:
- “This” is a singular subject.
- “is” is a singular verb form.
- “a book” is the singular object.
When you want to make the sentence plural, a few changes need to happen. Let’s break this down.
Changing the Noun
In the sentence “This is a book”, the noun “book” is singular. To make it plural, you simply change “book” to “books”. This follows the regular pluralization rule in English, which involves adding an “-s” to most nouns (though there are exceptions, like irregular plural forms).
The Demonstrative Pronoun: “This”
The word “this” is a singular demonstrative pronoun. For the plural form, we change “this” to “these.” “These” refers to multiple things, while “this” refers to just one.
The Verb: “Is”
The verb “is” is a singular form of “to be.” When making a sentence plural, you need to use the plural form of the verb, which is “are.” This is because “are” is used for plural subjects (e.g., “they are,” “we are,” “these are”).
Putting It All Together
So, when you pluralize the sentence “This is a book,” it changes to “These are books.”
- “This” becomes “These”
- “is” becomes “are”
- “book” becomes “books”
A Quick Recap
The plural form of the sentence “This is a book” is “These are books.”
- “This” changes to “These”
- “is” changes to “are”
- “book” becomes “books”
This structure is the same for any sentence where you’re talking about a single object and want to switch to talking about more than one. All you need to do is identify the noun and its accompanying words and change them accordingly.
Understanding these basic pluralization rules can help you not just with this example, but with a wide range of grammatical structures.