Grammar in context

1. REGULAR AND IRREGULAR PLURALS
NOUNS
By Miriam Gomez

2. INTRODUCTION
This is a course to understand and apply grammar in
context (noun and irregular plural nouns ) for
communication.

3. OBJECTIVE
 Understanding the grammar rules that apply to
Nouns and Irregular Plural Nouns.

4. REGULAR AND IRREGULAR PLURAL NOUNS
 Regular plurals:
1. We form the plural of most nouns by adding –s
to the singular noun.
Example: book books
girl girls
2. Some regular plurals require changes in the
spelling of the noun before we add –s.
Example: dish dishes
factory factories
knife knives

5. IRREGULAR PLURALS
 Some nouns form their plural by changing their vowels.
Singular Plural
foot feet
goose geese
man men
mouse mice
woman women
 Some nouns form their plural by adding a syllable.
Singular Plural
child children
ox oxen

6. IRREGULAR PLURALS
 Some nouns have the same singular and plural
forms.
Singular Plural
aircraft aircraft
deer deer
fish fish
offspring offspring
series series
spacecraft spacecraft
species species

7. IRREGULAR PLURALS
 Some nouns that come from Latin or Greek have
plural endings that come from those languages.
Singular Plural
bacterium bacteria
cactus cacti
curriculum curricula
focus foci
fungus fungi
medium media
memorandum memoranda
thesis theses

8. IRREGULAR PLURALS
 Some nouns have only a plural form. We can also
use a pair of before these noun.
Those jeans look great on you.
That pair of jeans looks great on you.
Plural
jeans
pajamas
pants
shorts
trousers.

9. IRREGULAR PLURALS
 Some nouns end in – s but are not plural.
Economics is interesting to me.
Singular
news
politics
mathematics
athletics
physics
rabies

10. IRREGULAR PLURALS
 The plural of person is usually people (not
persons), but we can use persons in legal contexts.
I know a person who works for your father.
I know some people who work for your father.
The person who had broken into a store was
arrested.
Three persons who had broken into a store
were arrested.

11. ASSIGNMENT
 Complete the sentences with the plural form of the nouns in
parentheses.
Diego Grande is eighty-nine years old. He is very tall and
has a large (foot) _______, a big nose, and no (tooth) _____
at all. His (hobby) ___________ are taking (photo)
_________ and fixing old (watch) __________. He has
several (pet)___________: three (mouse) ________, five
(fish)____________, and two (canary) __________. He had
two (wife) _________ during his life, but they both died. His
three (child) _________ are all grown up and now have (life)
_________ of their own.

12. APPENDIX 1 SPELLING RULES FOR ENDINGS

13. APPENDIX 2 IRREGULAR VERBS