Singular and Plural Nouns: Notes On Generalizations For Spelling/Forming Plural Nouns

Singular and Plural Nouns
Notes On Generalizations For

Spelling/Forming Plural Nouns.
Singular vs. Plural
A singular noun names one person,

place, thing, or idea.
• One cat, one store, one item
A plural noun names two or more
persons, places, things, or ideas.
• Two cats, four stores, fifteen items
Generalizations for forming plural
nouns:
1. For most singular nouns, add s.
Singular Plural
teacher teachers
street streets
pencil pencils
book books
elephant elephants
nouns:
2. For nouns ending with s, x, z, sh, or ch,
add es.
Singular Plural
gas gases
wax waxes
waltz waltzes
dish dishes
church churches
nouns:
3. For nouns ending with a consonant and y,
change the y to i and add es. For nouns ending
with a vowel and y, add s.
Singular Plural
sky skies
army armies
penny pennies
boy boys
alley alleys
nouns:
4. For some nouns ending with f or fe, add s. For others,
change the f to v and add s or es. (You will need to
memorize the spellings for such words or look them up
in a dictionary to check.
Singular Plural
belief beliefs
roof roofs
loaf loaves
life lives
knife knives
nouns:
These are a little more tricky . . .
5. For nouns that end with o, add s or es. (Again, you

would need to memorize the spellings of such words or
look them up in a dictionary to double-check.)
—One trick to remember: if it has to do with sound (“music”),
just add s.—Ex: cello. piano, radio
Singular Plural
cello cellos
piano pianos
radio radios
zoo zoos
potato / tomato potatoes / tomatoes
nouns:
6. Some nouns have irregular plural forms. You
will have to memorize the spelling for irregular
plurals.
Singular Plural
child children
foot feet
tooth teeth
mouse mice
man / woman men / women
nouns:
7. A few nouns have the same singular and
plural forms.
Singular Plural
sheep sheep
Chinese Chinese
moose moose
grapefruit grapefruit
deer deer
salmon salmon
nouns:
8. A few nouns have only plural forms.
Plural
scissors
jeans
savings
dues
nouns:
9. A few nouns that end with s look plural

but are considered singular.
Singular
measles
news
economics
dues
nouns:
Compound Nouns
10. For most compound nouns, make the most
important word plural.
• For a compound noun written as one word,
make the last part plural.
• For a compound noun written with hyphens
or as separate words, make the key word
plural.
nouns:
Singular Plural
One word billboard billboards
compound
nouns cupful cupfuls
campground campgrounds
Separate
words maid of honor maids of honor
Hyphenated
attorney-at-law attorneys-at-law
compound step-brother step-brothers
nouns
Great-grandma Great-grandmas
nouns:
11. Letters, numbers, symbols, and words used as
words are made plural by adding an apostrophe (‘)
and s.
Singular Plural
# #’s
A A’s
25 25’s
and and’s
& &’s
ABC & 123 ABC’s & 123’s
Using a Dictionary:
Nouns that are made plural in other ways

besides just adding -s or -es can be looked up
in a dictionary to check the correct spelling.
Sample Dictionary entries:
dic-tion-ar-y (dik’ she ner’ e), n., pl. –aries, a book containing
words of a language, usually arranged alphabetically,
with their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, etc.
en-try (en’ tre), n., pl. -tries. 1. entrance. 2. the act of
recording something in a book, register, etc. 3. the
item so recorded. 4. a person or thing entered in a
contest. 5. a word, phrase, etc. listed alphabetically in a
dictionary or reference book, usually with its definition or
explanation.
Multiple Choice
Which 2 words correctly complete
these sentences?
We bought a pair of _____ and some _____
at the yard sale.
A. ski . . . dishes
B. skis . . . dishs
C. skies . . . dish
D. skis . . . dishes
CORRECT!
We bought a pair of _skis_ and
some _dishes_ at the yard sale.
Multiple Choice
One of her _______ is studying _______ in

the wild.
A. hobbys . . . monkeyes
B. hobbyes . . . monkies
C. hobbies . . . monkeys
D. hobbys. . . monkees
CORRECT!
One of her _hobbies_ is
studying _monkeys_ in the wild.
Multiple Choice
A team of ______ pulled a wagon with three

_______ inside.
A. ox . . . woman
B. oxen . . . women
C. oxes . . . women
D. oxens . . . womans
CORRECT!
A team of _oxen_ pulled a wagon
with three _women_ inside.
Multiple Choice
Near the campsite they saw two _______

and several ________.
A. deer . . . moose
B. deers . . . moose
C. deers . . . mooses
D. deer . . . meese
CORRECT!
Near the campsite they saw two
_deer_ and several _moose_.
Newspaper Nouns
Use a newspaper or magazine article for this
activity:
•In the article, find at least 25 singular nouns.
Circle them with a colored pencil.
•On your own paper, make a T-chart. . . on the
left side write “Singular” and write “Plural” on
the right side of the T-chart.
•List the singular nouns you found in the article
on the left side of the T-chart, then write the
correct plural form of each on the right side.
Scoring Guide:
You should find at least 25 singular nouns.
Each of the plural nouns formed correctly from
these 25 singular nouns is worth 4 points, for a
total of 100.
Opportunity for BONUS points:

For every 5 additional singular nouns you identify,
list, and form the plural of correctly, you can earn one
bonus point.—up to a maximum of 5 bonus points (i.e. it
takes 25 additional singular nouns correctly made plural to
earn all 5 bonus points—but you can do it!!!)
Scoring Guide:
4 points each = total points 100
100% = 25 singular nouns identified and listed
with plural form spelled correctly.
Etc.
Grading: A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%,
C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%,
F = Below 60%

Singular and Plural Nouns: Notes On Generalizations For Spelling/Forming Plural Nouns

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Singular and Plural Nouns: Notes On Generalizations For Spelling/Forming Plural Nouns

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Singular and Plural Nouns: Notes On Generalizations For Spelling/Forming Plural Nouns

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Singular and Plural Nouns

Notes On Generalizations For

A singular noun names one person,

5. For nouns that end with o, add s or es. (Again, you

9. A few nouns that end with s look plural

Nouns that are made plural in other ways

One of her _ is studying _ in

A team of ______ pulled a wagon with three

Near the campsite they saw two _______

Opportunity for BONUS points:

You might also like