English Toolkit

5.3Irregular plurals

TYPICAL ERROR My two brother-in-laws helped me move house.

CORRECTION My two brothers-in-law helped me move house.

EXPLANATION Most nouns are made plural simply by the addition of the letter s - thus ship becomes ships - but some nouns are made plural in other ways. The following exercise allows you to practise a variety of ways in which words can be made plural.

Write the plurals for these words using the model provided as your guide.

aIf the plural of brother-in-law is brothers-in law, write the plurals of mother-in-law, senator-elect and passer-by. (With such compound words, make the initial word, the head word, plural.)

bIf the plural of baby is babies, write the plurals of puppy, family and theory. (With words ending in -y, change the y ending to ies.)

cIf the plural of pass is passes, write the plurals of hiss, Jones, loss. (With words ending in -s, add -es.)

dIf the plural of loaf is loaves and knife is knives, write the plurals of elf, shelf, wife. (With words ending in -f or -fe, the plural ending is often -ves ... but note that the plural of roof is roofs, not rooves!)

eIf the plural of sheep is sheep, write the plurals of deer, salmon and aircraft. (Some nouns use the same word for both singular and plural.)