In this video we're going to help you learn how to spell plural nouns.
Extra English Practice
So, in general, if you have a noun that you want to make plural in English,
all you do is add an S.
So I have one book or two books.
Yeah.
One pencil, two pencils.
One dog, two dogs.
That's easy.
Except English is never that easy!
Silly English!
So, we're gonna tell you a number of rules that will help with the exceptions.
So the first rule is words that end (before they're plurals) in S, X, Z, CH or SH.
In these cases, you add an E and an S.
So, for example, words like buses or watches or boxes or glasses.
These .... the -ES also adds an extra syllable in pronunciation.
That's right.
So box -- boxes, glass -- glasses.
The next rule has to do with words that end in the letter Y
If the word ends in a consonant + Y (like city or baby), then you will remove that Y,
change it to an I and add -es.
So, one city -- two cities.
One baby -- seven hundred babies.
[laughter]
I got tired of "two".
Nobody would be sleeping in a room with seven hundred babies.
But if the word ends in a vowel and a Y (like toy), we just add S.
So, toy -- toys, monkey -- monkeys, like this.
The next rule is if a word ends in F or FE.
In this case, you drop the F or the FE and you add VES.
So, for example, knife -- knives, life -- lives .
There are some exceptions to this rule, like everything.
The next rule is when a word ends in a letter O, and in this case, there are some very complex,
subtle rules,
but, in general, we add an S. But there are some common words that we add -ES to.
So usually it's an -S -- stereos, videos,
but some words, like potatoes and tomatoes, echoes, these words
we add an -ES.
You'll have to just learn these few words or look them up one by one.
So other than these rules there are a lot of nouns that just have an irregular plural
form,
so we're sorry, but you just have to learn those ones.
Some examples I'm sure you know already like child and children, or woman and women,
or some that don't change at all, like fish -- fish, so these ones you just learn as you
go along.
A couple other really common irregular plurals are tooth -- teeth, foot -- feet, mouse -- mice.
Alright, it's your turn!
Take a look at these words and change them to their plural forms.
Number one: blankets.
Number two: classes.
Three: countries.
Four: foxes.
Five: donkeys.
Six: dictionaries.
Seven: feet.
Eight: mice.
Nine: people.
Ten: phones.
Eleven: stereos
Twelve: students.
Thirteen: tomatoes.
Fourteen: watches.
Fifteen: wives
Okay, so Larissa and I are gonna play a game of Pictionary,
which means one of us will draw, and the other will try to guess what they're drawing.
But the trick is after we guess what it is, we have to figure out how to spell it in the
plural.
That's right.
Good luck!
Okay, number one...
Ohhh!
You're drawing babies?
Yeah!
That's cute!
Here we have a baby.
When we have words that end in a consonant + Y, we change the Y to an I and add -ES.
One baby, two babies.
Okay... something red... tomatoes?
They are tomatoes!
Holy cow, that was easy!
I feel like I should at least give it a little stem or something.
That was so quick.
These are very fancy tomatoes.
So if we have one of these, we'd call it a tomato,
but two -- this is one of the .. a little bit rare cases where after an O, we add -ES
A lot of the time we would just add an S, but with words like tomato, potato, we had
the -ES.
Swan?
Hmm, they do look a bit like swans.
Wait... it'll be clear..
Oh, I know, these are turkey.
Yeah, you got it!
These are big birds that we eat for Thanksgiving.
And because there's a vowel and a Y, we don't change it to I, we just add an S
Oh.. what is it?
I don't think I know!
Ohhh, I think maybe it's a big fluffy sheep!
It's a couple of sheep!
They are supposed to be.
I like it.
So this is a funny one because it's one of those irregular ones.
When we have one, we say one sheep.
And when we have two, we say two sheep.
Just the same!
Just the same.
Weird.
Super weird.
Okay, let's see if I can draw this in a way that makes sense...
Larissa, you have any idea?
I think I know..
I think it might be a grand piano
You got it!
Lovely.
We'll put some keys in.
Keys, yeah.
Ooo, can I also do keys?
Yeah, do that one, too!
So we have one piano, and two pianos.
We just add an S to that one,
and these are called keys.
One key, two keys.
Both of them just adding an S. Nice.
Alright, I'm gonna give you two for the price of one!
Oh, I love it!
Well, that looks like a couple of people.
Those are people.. and some little people..
and these little people.. otherwise known as children.
Children, good one.
When we have one, we say person.
If we have more than one, like two, we say people.
And then we could also say here -- one child (that's singular)
and then it's much longer if it's plural -- it's children.
Yeah, lovely.
They look like a cute little family!
They do.
How would you spell families (if we had more than one)?
Ohh, we should add that.
So, one is family, with a Y.
And because it ends in a consonant Y, you change that to into an IES -- families.
All sorts of irregular verbs -- errr, nouns here.
Nouns, these are nouns.
[laughter]
Cars!
They're sort of like cars.
Are they really big cars?
They're really big ones..
Are they buses?
You got it!
Ah ha.
One bus... words that end in S, Z, X, CH, and SH get -ES added.
One bus, two buses.
Nice.
Hmm...oh!
Is it a couple of leaves?
Yeah.
Looked like a water drop for a minute there.
I like it.
It's nice shapes.
So in this case we have one leaf, floating down off a tree..
and in the fall, like it is now, we see tons of leaves on the ground.
Yeah.
We get rid of the F and we add -VES.
Hmmmm, are you drawing some desks, Misha?
Yeah, desks...actually that wasn't the word I was thinking of..
Oh, okay.
What else you got?
Uhhhh...students?
Yeah!
But both of those work, write 'em down.
Alright, so we have one desk or many desks.
It's a nice regular word.
Same with students.
One student ... or in this case, three students.. we're just adding an S. Yeah, easy.
These are not tomatoes, I've already done tomatoes.
Yeah, we already did tomatoes, Larissa!
Watch this... oh, it's a couple of cherries!
Cherries!
Mm hmm.
Okay so cherries.... singular is this -- with a Y.
Before the Y is a consonant, so in that case, we turn it into an -IES.
Yep.
And we eat them and they're delicious.
I'm not sure if you know what this word is..
Misha, I think you know, but I mean everybody in general...
Oh, yeah.
This is something we play games with.
We call them dice,
and we usually use them in pairs, so we often only use that word -- dice,
which is the plural, but singular -- we call it one die.
Kinda awkward.
Yeah, it's weird, it's a weird word.
It's kind of a strange word even for English speakers.
Is it a mouth?
Yeah!
And in that mouth, are there some teeth?
There are!
One tooth.
I have a toothache because I need to brush my teeth.
Perfect.
Irregular noun.
Ok, let's see.
Those kind of look like teeth, too.
Ha.
I'm gonna give you this first.
Oh.
Maybe it'll help.
Ohhh, is that some water in a glass?
Yeah.
These are glasses.
Got it.
So, singular, we'd say glass.
Because there's an S... anytime we have S, Z, CH, SH, or X (I almost missed that one),
we add -ES, so glasses.
Two glasses of water.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Wedges! [laughter] I know, this one's a bit mysterious.
Oh, knives!
They're a couple of knives.
One is a knife.
Yeah.
With an F, we change that F to a V and add -ES, two knives.
Nice.
Dinner knives.
Dinner knives, yeah.
Okay, what do we got here?
Square... oh, I think that's a box.
It's a box.
So, singular, we say box.
And then remember this is one of that set of letters that means we add an -ES.
So X, S, SH, CH, Z --- -ES.
Box, boxes.
Ummm...
That looks like a rattle.. oh, yeah, you got it.
Okay.
Let me... let me draw one more.
Ohhh, you're drawing toys.
You got it!
Ah huh.
A block and a bear..
He's a weird-looking bear.. there you go.. better.
Pregnant bear.
So, one toy.
Here we have three toys.
Yeah.
Vowel + Y, we just add an S.
Oh, is that a book?
Yep!
It's a very severe book... very severely shaped, meant to be open books.
But those are butterfly books.
Butterfly books.
Book, books.
So singular... just like that.
And then this is a regular, easy one, you just add an S.
If they were butterflies... what would they be?
Oh, look at how cute those are.
So if they were butterflies...
Singular looks like this: butterfly.
And then because there's a consonant + Y, if we follow our rules, we'll end up with
butterflies.
Hmm, not sure... it's got buttons, it's a TV... no, your close...
Oh, it's a radio!
You got it.
Yeah, they are radios, that's right.
Radio ends in a vowel and an O, so we just need to add an S -- radios.
Great, great.
Thanks so much for watching.
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