Singular and Plural Nouns Notes On Generalizations For ...Generalizations for forming plural nouns: 1. For most singular nouns, add s. Singular Plural teacher teachers street streets

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 morepersons, 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


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


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


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


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


Singular Plural

child children

foot feet

tooth teeth

mouse mice

man / woman men / women

6. Some nouns have irregular plural forms. You will have to memorize the spelling for irregular plurals.


Singular Plural

sheep sheep

Chinese Chinese

moose moose

grapefruit grapefruit

deer deer

salmon salmon

7. A few nouns have the same singular and plural forms.


8. A few nouns have only plural forms.

Plural

scissors

jeans

savings

dues


9. A few nouns that end with s look pluralbut are considered singular.

Singular

measles

news

economics

dues


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 hyphensor as separate words, make the key wordplural.


Singular Plural

billboard billboards

cupful cupfuls

campground campgrounds

maid of honor maids of honor

attorney-at-law attorneys-at-law

step-brother step-brothers

Great-grandma Great-grandmas

One word

compound

nouns

Hyphenated

compound

nouns

Separate

words


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

One of her _hobbies_ is studying _monkeys_ in the wild.

CORRECT!

A team of ______ pulled a wagon with three _______ inside.

A. ox . . . woman

B. oxen . . . women

C. oxes . . . women

D. oxens . . . womans

Multiple Choice

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:

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%

4 points each = total points 100

Singular and Plural Nouns Notes On Generalizations For ...Generalizations for forming plural nouns: 1. For most singular nouns, add s. Singular Plural teacher teachers street streets

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