Rules for Irregular Plural Formation of Nouns
Variations of the final -s rule:
• Nouns that end with -s, -z, -x, -sh, -ch
Add -es
glass/glasses, buzz/buzzes, box/boxes, bush/bushes, switch/switches
• Nouns that end in -o
Add -es
potato/potatoes, echo/echoes, hero/heroes
exceptions: studio/studios, piano/pianos, kangaroo/kangaroos, zoo/zoos
either: buffalo/buffalo(e)s, cargo/cargo(e)s, motto/motto(e)s,
volcano/volcano(e)s
• Nouns that end in a consonant + -y
Change -y to -i and add -es
baby/babies, spy/spies, poppy/poppies
• Nouns that end in -f, or -fe
Change the -f to -v and add -es
shelf/shelves, wolf/wolves, knife/knives, wife/wives
Nouns adopted from other languages:
• Singular ends in -is
Plural ends in -es analysis/analyses, basis/bases
• Singular ends in -um
Plural ends in –a datum/data, curriculum/curricula
• Singular ends in -on
Plural ends in criterion/criteria, phenomenon/phenomena
• Singular ends in -a
Plural ends in -ae formula/formulae, antenna/antennae
• Singular ends in -ex or -ix
Plural ends in -ices appendix/appendices, index/indices
• Singular ends in -us
Plural ends in -i focus/foci, stimulus/stimuli
• Singular ends in -us
Plural ends in corpus/corpora, genus/genera
• Singular ends in -eau
Plural ends in -eaux bureau/bureaux, beau/beaux
Nouns that have only a plural form and so take a plural verb
• Things that come in pairs
Tools: glasses, scissors, binoculars, forceps, tongs, tweezers
Clothes: jeans, pants, pajamas, shorts, trousers
• Nouns that end in -s but have no singular (aggregate nouns)
accommodations, amends, archives, arms (weapons), bowels, intestines,
brains (intellect), clothes, communications, congratulations, contents,
stairs, thanks, goods
• Nouns that are plural but do not end in -s
people, police, cattle, people
MR. MOSTAFA REFAT
Irregular Nouns
________________________________________
SINGULAR PLURAL
alumnus alumni
analysis analyses
antenna antennae/antennas
appendix appendices
axis axes
bacterium bacteria
basis bases
beau beaux
bureau bureaux/bureaus
child children
corpus corpora/corpuses
crisis crises
criterion criteria
curriculum curricula
datum data
deer deer
diagnosis diagnoses
ellipsis ellipses
fish fish
focus foci/focuses
foot feet
formula formulae/formulas
fungus fungi/funguses
genus genera
goose geese
hypothesis hypotheses
index indices/indexes
louse lice
man men
matrix matrices
means means
medium media
mouse mice
nebula nebulae
nucleus nuclei
oasis oases
ox oxen
paralysis paralyses
parenthesis parentheses
phenomenon phenomena
radius radii
series series
sheep sheep
species species
stimulus stimuli
stratum strata
synthesis syntheses
synopsis synopses
tableau tableaux
thesis theses
tooth teeth
vertebra vertebrae
vita vitae
woman women
Pattern Examples How they are pronounced
words containing "ough" 1. thought, bought, fought, brought
2. enough, rough, tough, slough
3. through
4. though, although, dough, thorough
5. cough
6. bough, doughty 1. end with sound of "ot" as in POT, NOT
2. end with sound of "uff" as in STUFF
3. ends with sound of Long U, as in the word THREW or SHOE
4. end with the sound of Long O, as in NO or GO
5. ends with the sound "OFF
6. contain the same sound as "COW" or "NOW"
Words that sound the same but are spelled differently. 1. byte, bite, bight
2. seen, scene
3. hear, here
4. sense, cents, scents
5. their, there, they're
6. feet, feat
7. ate, eight
8. err, heir, air
9. wheel, weal, we'll
10. you, ewe
11. isle, aisle, I'll
12. ale, ail
13. gnu, new, knew 1. Long i + t
2. Long e + n
3. Long e + r
4. all end with the sound of "-ENCE" or "-ENSE"
5. Long a + r
6. Long e + t
7. Long a + t
8. Long a + r
9. Long e + L
10. Long u
11. Long I + L
12. Long a + L
13. N + Long u
Words containing "ight" • alight, bight, flight, light, night, might, right, sight, tight, plight, fright, In all of these words, "ight" is pronounced like Long i + t.
Words with Silent Letters • gnat, gnaw
• know, knee, knife, knit, knickers, knuckle
• psychology, psychiatrist, pneumonia
• should, could, would
• isle, aisle, island
• wrap, wrinkle, write
• debt, doubt
• listen, soften, castle All of these words are pronounced as if the red letters were not there, but when you write the words, you MUST include those letters.
Words that look the same but are pronounced differently. 1. wind - Short i sound
2. wind - Long i sound
3. read - Short e sound
4. read - Long e sound
5. abuse - with z sound
6. abuse - with s sound
7. addict - stress on ad
8. addict - stress on dict
9. combine - stress on com
10. combine - stress on bine
11. defect - stress on de
12. defect - stress on fect 1. moving air outdoors, part of weather
2. twisting motion, as with a clock spring
3. past tense, got meaning from written words
4. present tense of same verb
5. verb, to injure or do harm
6. noun - injury or damage
7. noun - person who acts compulsively
8. verb - to make dependent on
9. noun - a harvesting machine
10. verb - to put together
11. noun - a flaw
12. verb - to desert
Words with 'oo' that should sound the same but don't. 1. book, foot, good, hood, look, moor, poor, stood, wood
2. aloof, boom, doom, gloom, soon, bloom, broom, noon, proof, roof, zoom
3. floor, door
4. flood, blood 1. these words have the same Short U vowel sound
2. these words all have a Long U sound
3. 'oo' = an O sound as in 'or', 'more'
4. these words have the same vowel sound as 'bud' and 'cud'
Some more inconsistencies:
Ways to spell Long 'U' shoe, grew, through. do, doom, flue, two, who, brute, duty
Ways to spell Long 'O' go, show, though, sew, beau, float, bone,
Ways to spell Long 'A' may, weigh, late, pain, rein, great
Ways to spell Long 'E' free, bean, magazine, gene, mete, be, mien, receive, believe
Ways to spell Long 'I' fine, rhyme, fight, align, isometric, bayou
The chart above is just a small sample of why Spelling Rules in English can be almost as much of a problem as spelling itself. Notice the "i-e" Rule:
Use i before e, except after c, or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh.
• This is a nice, neat little rule concerning words that have the letters i and e together, usually to form the Long E sound in English: i before e, as in piece or relief.
• Then the rule says "Except after C". The ie becomes ei , as in receive and deceit.
• Now you know that the Long E sound in English can be made by 'ie', unless the sound comes after 'c', in which case it is made by 'ei', (except for those times when the Long E sound is made by 'ee' or 'ea' or 'e' or 'i' or 'oe').
• Then the Rule tells you about another exception - when the i and the e are together in a word and are pronounced like Long A, the e must come before the i. Examples: neighbor, sleigh, weigh, freight, etc.
• In this one short Rule, there are already two exceptions to it covering dozens of other words, but that is not the end. There are many words that do not follow the Rule or its exceptions: seize, weird, neither, either, foreign, sovereign, forfeit, counterfeit, leisure, heifer, protein, geiger (as in 'counter'), height, sleight, feisty, seismograph, poltergeist, kaleidoscope.
At this point you may ask, "What can I do about it? How can I figure out how to spell the words in this crazy language?" Believe it or not, there are a few things you can do that will help, but after you remember the rules and learn the 'tricks', you are left with this basic technique: Study, Memorize, Study, Memorize, Study, Memorize.
Exercise: For each of the words in the list below, write the definition (from a dictionary) and write a sentence using the word.
1. scene
2. seen
3. scent
4. sent
5. cent
6. err
7. air
8. heir
9. feet
10.feat
11. new
12. knew
13. hear
14. here
موضوع: grammar tip top 
الخميس أبريل 24, 2008 6:59 am
