Irregular Plural Nouns

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Basics on the topic Irregular Plural Nouns

Join Pip and Koko and learn about irregular plural nouns.

Transcript Irregular Plural Nouns

Irregular Plural Nouns. "Koko, I can't sleep!" "You need to count some sheep." "Ok? But, where am I going to get sheeps from?" "No, no matter how many there are, it's just sheep, and you won't need to count that many before you're sound asleep." A plural noun is a noun that refers to more than one person, place, thing or idea. Most nouns can be made plural by following one of these rules. Adding an s, like in balloons, adding an es, as in sandwiches, changing the final y to ies in words like puppies or changing the final f to ves like in elves. But not all nouns follow these rules. Irregular plural nouns sometimes must be changed in a different way to make them mean more than one. Because irregular plural nouns do not follow the rules, we must memorise them. However, there are some patterns we can learn to help us. Let's take a look at some of the different patterns irregular plural nouns might have. One group of nouns become plural by changing the vowels inside the word. To mean more than one, these nouns change the a in the middle of a word to an e. For example, man becomes men and woman becomes women. Another set of irregular plural nouns are made by changing the vowels oo to ee. We would say one tooth, but, three teeth. Other nouns that follow this pattern are foot to feet and goose to geese. Rule breakers can be tricky! There's even a word that doesn't follow this pattern! It's moose! Moose does not change to meese when talking about more than one! This double rule breaker belongs in the next group of irregular plural nouns words that stay the same whether singular or plural. We say moose whether we were referring to one or twenty moose. Deer, fish and sheep are some of the other nouns that stay the same no matter how many there are. The last pattern of irregular plural nouns are words that change their spelling altogether. Mouse is an example of this type of noun. To make it plural, we change the word to mice. Person is another word that changes its spelling to a new word. What is the plural of person? We say people. Knowing these patterns can help us when forming irregular plural nouns. Before we check in to see if Pip fell asleep, let's review. Remember irregular nouns can be changed to make them mean more than one. Some nouns become plural by changing the vowels inside the word. Some nouns stay the same whether there is one or many and others change into different words altogether. "What in the world?" "You were right, Koko, counting sheep does put you to sleep!"

Irregular Plural Nouns exercise

Would you like to apply the knowledge you’ve learnt? You can review and practice it with the tasks for the video Irregular Plural Nouns .

What are plural and irregular plural nouns?
Hints
The word irregular means something that is not regular and does not follow the rules. Irregular nouns must be changed in different ways than regular nouns.

An example of a regular plural noun is :
- dog -> dogs
An example of an irregular plural noun is:
- person -> people
Solution

A plural noun is a noun that refers to more than one person, place, thing or idea.
An irregular plural noun must be changed in a different way to make them mean more than one. They do not follow the rules, so we must memorise them.
What is the irregular plural form of child?

Hints

Look at the picture. There was one child and now there is a group of _______ .

The plural of child does not end in s.

Solution

The irregular plural form of child is children.
Which words stay the same regardless of how many there are?

Hints

Remember, you are highlighting words that stay the same. For example, the word deer. We use deer when talking about one deer, or many deer.

Try saying the words out loud in a sentence.
For example: I saw one child, I saw many children.
With this, we can see that children changes its form from regular to irregular. So, children does not stay the same.

There are 3 words to highlight.

Solution

The words that stay the same regardless of whether the noun is one or more are:
sheep, moose and fish.
These words are used to talk about one, or many. For example:
Look at this little sheep! We are talking about one sheep.
Look at all these sheep! We are talking about many sheep.
_______________________________________________________
The other words on the list all change:
Child changes to children.
Woman changes to women.
Man changes to men.
Goose changes to geese.
Match the pairs.

Hints

Remember the patterns that some irregular plural nouns follow. Look at this picture to help you.

Remember that some plural nouns are the same in irregular form. For example: I saw one sheep. I saw many sheep.

Solution

The irregular plural of octopus is octopi.
The irregular plural of goose is geese
The irregular plural of rice is still rice.
The irregular plural of person is people.
The irregular plural of mouse is mice.
What is the irregular plural form of foot?

Hints

The word foot changes to an irregular plural noun by using this pattern.

Another example of this pattern is tooth changing to teeth. What does foot change to?

Solution

The irregular plural of foot is feet. This word changes vowels from oo to ee.
Can you complete the sentences with the correct irregular plural nouns?

Hints

Use this chart to remind you of how we can identify the irregular plural form of a noun.

You are one child in your class but altogether there are many _____ .

Solution

There are seven fish.
I brush my teeth with a toothbrush.
I play with the other children in my class.