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Joe Lewis

As you probably know, most plural nouns in English are with an S at the end.

The plural of hand is hands: one hand, two hands.

The plural of pen is pens: one pen, two pens.

One dress, two dresses. (The extra e is to pronounce it. You can’t say dresss, can you?)

It gets a bit more complicated with several words that stay the same in the plural.

The plural of sheep is sheep.

The plural of fish is fish or fishes (you may choose).

The plural of deer is deer.

Then there are a few words that have an irregular plural form.

Examples are:

Child – children

Foot – feet

Mouse – mice

Tooth – teeth

Goose – geese

Man – men

Woman – women

And the last group that we’ll talk about today is words with -ves in the plural:

Knife – knives

Wife – wives

Leaf – leaves

Wolf – wolves

Life – lives

Self – selves

Elf – elves

Half – halves

Now in the next exercise I’ll show you sentences, because it’s usually when students make or read sentences that they forget about the plural forms. It’s easier to remember the rules when you only need to concentrate on one word.

Exercise

Do this exercise online and check your answers here.

Write the word between ** in the plural.

Example:

Who was that *man* you were talking with just now? Answer: men

1 We could share that apple. Just give me one *half*.

2 I just read a book about the *life* of Queen Nefertiti.

3 Lonny is an easy, quiet *child*.

4 Tim was trying to stroke the *sheep*’s soft pink nose.

5 Ow, my *tooth* hurts.

6 Diana is a beautiful *woman*.

7 A sales*person* helped us.

8 Galadriel is a female *elf*.

9 I found a pretty red *leaf*.

10 Do you know any places in the world where men are allowed to have more than one *wife*?

11 This *knife* is blunt.

12 A *deer* entered our kitchen this morning to eat from the bin.

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