Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Notes On Generalizations
For Spelling/Forming
Plural Nouns.
Singular Plural
teacher teachers
street streets
pencil pencils
book books
elephant elephants
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Generalizations for forming plural
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
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Generalizations for forming plural
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
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alleys
Generalizations for forming plural
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
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knives
Generalizations for forming plural
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
FLOR DE MARIA GARCIA PANDO potatoes / tomatoes
Generalizations for forming plural
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
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Generalizations for forming plural
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
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Generalizations for forming plural
nouns:
8. A few nouns have only plural forms.
Plural
scissors
jeans
savings
dues
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Generalizations for forming plural
nouns:
Singular
measles
news
economics
dues
FLOR DE MARIA GARCIA PANDO
Generalizations for forming plural
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.
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
A. ski . . . dishes
B. skis . . . dishs
C. skies . . . dish
D. skis . . . dishes
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FLOR DE MARIA GARCIA PANDO
CORRECT!
We bought a pair of _skis_ and
some _dishes_ at the yard sale.
A. hobbys . . . monkeyes
B. hobbyes . . . monkies
C. hobbies . . . monkeys
D. hobbys. . . monkees
A. ox . . . woman
B. oxen . . . women
C. oxes . . . women
D. oxens . . . womans