Simple Irregular and Regular Plurals Presentation

By: Alex Case

Theme: General

Study Area: Nouns

Page: /

Lesson Plan Content:

Simple irregular and regular plurals presentation

On each line below, only one of the nouns has a regular plural (+s/ +es/ -ies) and the other is irregular. Change the one regular one to the plural and also change the irregular one if you can. You can skip the irregular plural if you aren’t sure, but please always change one on each line to the regular plural before you move onto the next line.

Elementary

boy man

girl woman

human person

child kid

foot hand

postman teacher

air hostess policewoman

pupil schoolchild

Pre-Intermediate

homemaker housewife

tongue tooth

mouse rat

knife roof

dolphin goldfish

Intermediate

criminal thief

loaf bread roll

branch leaf

death life

deer horse

Upper Intermediate

century millennium

serial series

material medium

crisis panic

individual yourself

alumnus fellow graduate

axis line

half quarter

goat sheep

duck goose

fox wolf

pony reindeer

factory steelworks

means way

Advanced

innings run

analysis calculation

event phenomenon

dissertation thesis

bacterium virus

hypothesis theory

summary synopsis

combination synthesis

boost stimulus

organism species

basis foundation

flea louse

spacecraft spaceship

tuna whale

calf piglet

lake oasis

brown bear wild boar

salmon sardine

clam squid

tadpole trout

criterion checklist

diagnosis treatment

biceps muscle

pheasant quail

bison cow

moose polar bear

faux pas slipup

caterpillar larva

nervous tick neurosis

electron nucleus

cure prognosis

sheaf sheet

layer stratum

conference symposium

spine vertebra

executive summary précis

assignation rendezvous

intersection locus

battalion corps

metamorphosis transformation

cow ox

elf pixie

dwarf troll

pig swine

hoof proof

carp crab

eel koi

futon samurai

geek otaku

mussel starfish

automaton robot

edit erratum

Try to make generalisations about what kinds of words are irregular above, then use patterns those to fill in some of the other irregular plurals.

Use the hints below to add and check more irregular plurals above.

a final “-f” often changes to “-ves”
final “-um” in Latin words often changes to “-a”
final “-is” sometimes changes to “-es”
final “-us” in Latin words often changes to “-i”
final “-on” in Latin words sometimes changes to “-a”
final “-a” in singular Latin words sometimes changes to “-ae”
animals and fish are often the same in the singular and plural (but shellfish tend to have regular plurals)
some animals and other words such as some body parts change the vowel in the middle of the word
some old (and often outdated) words have very irregular plural forms like “-en”
foreign words which still seem foreign tend to be the same in the singular and plural, especially if they only refer to foreign things
some singular words ending in “-s” don’t change in the plural (although the pronunciation sometimes changes)
final “-s” in French words usually doesn’t change when changing to the plural, but English speakers sometimes pronounce the “-s” only when it is a plural

Check as a class or with the answer key, then test each other in pairs:

Read out a pair above and see if your partner can say the regular plural back
Read out a pair above and see if your partner can say which one is irregular
Read out a word which makes an irregular plural and see if your partner can say the plural
Read out a pair above and see if your partner can make both plurals

Simple Irregular and Regular Plurals Presentation

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Lesson Plan Content:

Simple irregular and regular plurals presentation

Suggested answers