Question

Select the correct plural noun from the given singular form of the noun:
They say there are ______ in this village. (witch)
a) witch’s
b) witches’
c) witches
d) witch

Answer 1

Hint: Nouns can be converted into plural form by adding ‘-s’ or ‘-es’. They usually do not contain apostrophes.

Complete answer:
 It is important to differentiate between singular and plural nouns. A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or, idea, while a plural noun names more than one person, place, thing, and, idea.

A plural noun indicates that there is more than one of that noun. Usually, singular nouns are made plural by simply adding ‘-s’ or ‘-es’ at the end.
For example, the noun ‘cat’ implies that there is only one cat. It can be made plural by just adding ‘-s’ at the end, i.e. ‘cats’. Likewise, the noun ‘ditch’ can be made plural by adding ‘-es’ at the end, i.e. ‘ditches’.

However, there are some exceptions like ‘fish’ and ‘sheep’ which stay the same in their plural and singular forms.

Now, let’s look at our available options:
option (a), witch’s - This is an incorrect option, because it has an apostrophe on a singular noun. Plural nouns don’t contain apostrophes in the given context.
option (b), witches’ - This is also an incorrect option, because it has an apostrophe on a plural noun. The apostrophe does not fit into the given sentence.
option (c), witches - This word is the plural form of ‘witch’. This word is constructed by adding a simple ‘-es’ to the end of ‘witch’. So, this is the correct option.
option (d), witch - This is a singular noun and therefore, is an incorrect option.
Hence option (c) is correct. 

Note:
The word ‘witch’ is easy to convert into plural form. Check each option for the appropriate suffix. It is important for the suffix to be grammatically correct. Then, check for any incorrect punctuation. Remember that the punctuation also determines the correctness of the word. Accordingly, select the most appropriate option.