4.1.3: Text- Irregular Plural Nouns
- Page ID
- 255988
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Irregular plurals, unlike regular plurals, don’t necessarily follow any pattern, and require a lot of memorization. Mastering this type of pluralization uses a different region of your brain than regular pluralization, meaning it’s an entirely different skill set than regular pluralization. So don’t get too frustrated if you can’t remember the correct plural. If you’re ever in doubt, the dictionary is there for you. Below are some common patterns in irregular plural nouns.
No Change (Base Plurals)
In some words, the singular form is used for both singular and plural.
- fish
- deer
- sheep
- series
- species
Vowel Changes
In some words double "o" changes to double"ee."
- foot→ feet
- goose → geese
Plural –en
- child → children
- ox → oxen
Practice
What are the correct plurals for the following words? You may need a dictionary to complete the chart.
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| goose | moose | ||
| fish | child | ||
| man | tooth |
| mouse | foot |
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Revision and Adaptation. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Irregular Plural Nouns. Authored by: Julie Sevastopoulos. Provided by: Grammar-Quizzes.com. Located at: http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/agree1b.html. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Irregular plural nouns - the MUTANT PLURALS. Authored by: David Rheinstrom. Provided by: Khan Academy. Located at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/grammar-nouns/v/irregular-plural-nouns-part-iv-the-parts-of-speech-grammar. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Image of geese. Authored by: Sarah JOY. Provided by: The Noun Project. Located at: https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=geese&i=334679. License: CC BY: Attribution