Hello and welcome back to English Snacks. I'm your host Amber. Did you know that all episodes of English Snacks have a transcript? This means if you're a visual learner like me, you can read along. Feel free to look at the transcript or test your listening skills and read later. The choice is yours. Today we're going to look at a small detail in English that can feel confusing. But once you understand it, things become much clearer. I'll talk about why we say short -sleeve
shirt and two -year -old boy. Not short -sleeves shirt and not So here's the idea. Sometimes in English, a group of words comes before a noun to describe it. When that happens, we treat that group like one simple description. And usually we use the singular form. even if the meaning feels plural. Let's hear some examples. Even though the break is five minutes long, we say five minute here because it's describing the
kind of break. But if we move it later in the sentence, we can say, The break is five minutes long. Two. A three -day trip. Not a three days trip. Here, three day describes the trip. After the verb, we could say, The trip lasts three days. 3. A five -star hotel, not a five -stars hotel. Here we're not counting stars in a normal way. We're describing the type of hotel. The hotel has five stars. 4. A 10 -year plan, not a 10 -years plan. It's the same pattern. We can
say, the plan lasts 10 years. 5. A 90 -minute movie, not a 90 -minutes movie. The movie is 90 minutes long. 6. A 1 ,000 page book. Not a 1 ,000 pages book. In a sentence, we could say, The book has 1 ,000 pages. So now let's connect this to the original examples I told you. We say a short -sleeve shirt, a two -year -old boy. Because short -sleeve and two -year -old are just descriptions placed before the noun. So we keep them simple and we use the singular form.
Here's an easy way to remember. When the description comes before the noun, we use singular form. When it comes after the verb, use normal plural forms. Let's have a quick practice. Try this one. Which is correct? A two hours meeting? Or a two -hour meeting. Yes, a two -hour meeting. And the meeting is two hours long. If this felt a little strange, don't worry. It's completely normal. This is just one of those patterns you start to notice. more and more over time when
you're learning English. Just keep listening for it and it will begin to feel more natural. Here are five example sentences to build on what you just learned. Feel free to repeat after me, either out loud or in your mind. 1. She took a 10 -minute walk before work. 2. We planned a two -day trip to the coast. 3. He bought a $5 coffee at the station. 4. They stayed in a three -star hotel near the city centre. I watched a two -hour movie last night. Power sentence.
When a number and a noun come before another noun, use the singular form. When they come after the verb, use the plural form. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and learned something new. Feel free to play it again and read the transcript if you need. I'm looking forward to sharing more with you soon. So as always, come hungry for knowledge.