Nouns: irregular plurals
Nouns*: regular and irregular, singular and plural!
To find out about a noun you need to look it up in the dictionary. It will give you the information you need to be able to use the noun accurately!
Regular nouns add an 's' e.g. 1 pig, 2 pigs.
Here is an exercise to practise some irregular plural nouns. Decide which of these nouns fits in the brackets in place of the numbers in the paragraph below: Read the story through completely first!
The words you need are all irregular in the way they form the plurals:
e.g. child - children man - men woman - women sheep - sheep
wolf - wolves fox - foxes mouse - mice
.foot - feet
There are many .....(1) at the school but one..... (2), Ben, has a problem. He's afraid of.... (3) but he likes .....(4). Fortunately all his teachers are ..... (4) but his sports teacher is a ....(3). Ben doesn't like sports! He likes drawing. He likes drawing farm animals like cows and pigs and white, woolly ......(5).
He likes drawing wild animals like ....(6) and .....(7). He likes drawing his family too, his father and mother, and his brothers and sisters. He can draw heads and arms and legs but he can't draw hands and ......(8).
Answers: There are many (1) children at the school but one (2) child,
Ben, has a problem. He's afraid of (3) men but he likes (4) women.
All his teachers are (4) women but his sports teacher is a (3) man.
Ben doesn't like sports! He likes drawing. He likes drawing farm animals
like cows and pigs and white, woolly(5) sheep. He likes drawing wild
animals like (6) wolves and (7) foxes. He can't draw heads and legs
but he can't draw hands and (8) feet.
* this practice exercise is very simple is and more for children. Sorry, adults! But you do have problems with child/children, man/men, woman/women (pronounced/wimin/)!
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