Lesson video

Hi there, and welcome to today's spelling lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

And I'm really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains, as well as that something to write with and write on or someone and something to talk to would also be excellent, right? Let's waste no time and crack right into today's spelling lesson.

And this spelling lesson will be forming irregular plural nouns.

The outcome will be, I can spell irregular plural nouns that do not follow clear rules.

Here are the key words for today's learning.

My turn, your turn.

Suffix, root word, singular, plural, and then a really important word for today, irregular.

So you may be already be aware of some of the suffixes that we can add to singular nouns that create plural nouns.

But today we're gonna be looking at some irregular plural nouns.

A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a root word.

The root word is the base word from which other words are formed often by adding prefixes or suffixes.

Singular means only one, and plural means more than one.

And finally, if something is irregular, it means it does not conform to a regular or predictable pattern.

So today we're gonna be looking at some plurals that don't follow the regular suffix patterns that we know when turning nouns from singular into plural.

Here is the outline for today.

We're gonna be forming irregular plural nouns.

We're gonna look at these irregular plurals and also some regular plurals in the first learning cycle and compare them.

Then we're going to practise and apply the spellings that we've been looking at.

Let's get on them.

We write irregular plurals.

Common nouns, name people, places and things.

They do not need a capital letter unless they're at the start of a sentence.

They're not a proper noun, they're not a name of a person or a place or a particular company.

Common nouns can be singular.

So one of them, or plural, more than one.

Both single and singular mean only one.

If a noun is plural, it means that there is more than one of it.

The spelling of the noun usually changes when it becomes plural, when it changes from singular to plural.

And often we can do this by adding suffixes.

When creating plurals, there are several rules, including just adding an s, just adding es, removing the y, and adding ies and removing the f, the fe and adding ves.

We just add s often when the root words end in consonants and vowels.

We just add es.

When our root words end in sh, ch, s, sx or o.

At other times we have to remove the y from the root word.

And this is when our root word ends in a consonant and a y.

And at other times we must remove that f and that fe when our root words end in F or fe and add ves.

You may remember these rules from any previous learning you've done when adding plural suffixes.

So with that in mind, look at these singular nouns.

In the left hand side, we have wolf, party, coat and church.

How will you turn these into a plural nouns? Have a good spelling those plural nouns and then consider the rule that you've used and match them.

Off you go, team.

Brilliant job.

Great use of the rules there.

You clearly know loads already.

So wolf ends in that f, doesn't it? So we create wolves by removing the f and adding ves.

Excellent.

Party, party two syllables there, and it's a consonant, then a y.

So I have to, whoosh, remove the y and add ies.

So I remove the y and add ies.

Then coat, that's a really simple one, isn't it? Ends in that consonant letter.

I can just add an s, coats.

And church ends in ch, so I just add es.

It sounds like church is is, but it's the es spelling.

Nouns ending in o can take e, s or s when creating plurals.

And these are ones that we just have to learn.

So our rule here is add s or es.

For instance, cello, the musical instrument, can become cellos just by adding an s.

Radio can become radios just by adding an s.

But then if we look at the fruit, mango, to make mangoes, we add es, or an echo, that noise that reverberates back to you, becomes echoes with an es.

Hero becomes heroes with an es as well.

We really just have to learn these because there's no obvious or clear pattern.

So let's take a look at these again.

Cello and radio, when they become plural, we just add an s, but mango, echo and hero, we add that es.

What will the spelling of these words be then when the suffix s or es is added? Remember looking carefully at the spelling of the root word can help us to spell the new word.

And we can also, in this instance, because there are no clear rules, really just think about what looks right.

How will I spell pianos, heroes, volcanoes.

Have a think.

Brilliant, great use of your thinking brains.

So pianos, just adding an s, heroes and volcanoes though are our es ones.

Remember, there are no clear patterns here.

We just need to learn them.

So some of the words do not follow any clear rules when they change from singular to plural.

And this is the real key part of today's learning.

We call these irregular.

Can you say that word for me? Irregular.

This means they don't follow the regular patterns we'd expect them to.

So let's look at the singular man.

The plural of man is men.

We don't say mans.

I don't add an s as you'd normally expect with a plural.

Person, we say people.

I don't say persons.

Foot, I don't say foots, I say feet.

We call these irregular plurals, man, men, person, people, foot, feet.

Often saying these in a sentence can help us.

And the really key bit here is to remember that they don't follow any particular rules like the plurals that we've looked at.

So you really just have to learn them.

Sometimes the middle vowel or vowels change.

For instance, goose becomes geese.

So our double o there has turned to a double e and we end with our se still.

Louse like a wood, like wood lice becomes lice, plural.

Mouse becomes mice.

So in these instances, our ou has become an i and our se has become a ce.

Tooth becomes teeth.

That's a bit like our goose becoming geese.

The double o's become a double e and then we have our TH at the end.

Saying the words often in a sentence can help us to spell the word.

Because often you can hear which one sounds correct.

So I wouldn't say I've hurt my tooths.

I'd say I'd hurt my teeth.

Oh, that sounds more correct.

So with that in mind, I'm really thinking carefully about these irregular plurals that we've just looked at.

Can you identify the sentences with the correct plural nouns now.

Off you go, team.

Great job.

This is quite tricky because there are no rules or patterns for us to use here.

They're irregular.

So the gooses flu south for the winter.

Does that sound right? No, it doesn't to me.

The geese flew south for the winter, that does sound correct.

So my plural, geese.

You must brush your tooths every morning and night.

I'm not so sure if that sounds right.

You must brush your teeth every morning and night.

Yes, that does sound correct.

So these are irregular plurals.

Sometimes the final letters change, but we can still use the singular noun to help us spell the plural noun.

For instance, dice becomes die, like the dice you would roll.

Child becomes children.

It sounds different, doesn't it? But it has the spelling of that word in.

In die, we've just removed the C.

In children, we've added the ren.

Formula becomes formulae or formulae.

With that e added onto the end.

Index becomes indices.

The plural of that index that you might find at the back of a text.

Axis, singular axis, your y and your x axis, each of them that you might put on a graph, if you're talking about the plural of them, you didn't say axises, you say axes.

Say that for me, axes.

It's quite a strange one.

Some of these words have kept the plural form of the original language, such as Latin or Greek, for instance, formulae and axes.

Can you have a look here carefully for me at the singular nouns and the plural nouns and match them? We have a little hint here to help us look for letters that are similar in both words.

Also consider how they've changed and learn them.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

So woman becomes women.

We don't say womans.

Formula becomes formulae or formulae.

Cactus is a really interesting one, it becomes cacti.

And ox becomes oxen.

We had the en there.

Remember, there are no clear patterns here, there irregular.

It's just really important that we learn them.

So as a language has changed and evolved, other acceptable versions of the plural are in use that you might hear in use more regularly as well.

For instance, with that formula, like that mathematical formula that you might be writing, we can use formula or formula.

But in some spaces the words formulas might also be used.

Index, we could correctly use indices, couldn't we? The plural or we could say indexes.

Be careful with these.

Occasionally a word might have multiple uses or meanings, which can be shown in the plural, having a different spelling and pronunciation.

For instance, the butterflies antennae flickered on a windy day.

The engineer adjusted the radio's antennas to get better signal.

Antennas followed by our s rule here for that suffix.

But antennae with our AI is irregular.

This is because of the etymology of the word.

The antenna of an insect was in existence before the radio antennae.

So we've just added ae, and that follows the traditional etymology of the word irregular, plural.

but the radio antennas uses our more recent modern rule of just adding an s for the plural there and they mean different things.

One will be the antenna on the insect's head and the other will be a radio antenna that's used to collect signals.

Some words are the same in both the singular and plural and this is super fascinating.

One sheep, two sheep.

Okay, 10 sheep, it's the same.

We don't say sheeps.

It's the same with fish.

We don't say fishes.

We would say three fish.

One deer, four for deer.

Again, we don't say deers for plural.

Listening to the words in a sentence again can help you to identify the spelling and whether it sounds correct.

So with that in mind, I'd like you to select the correct spelling of each plural now.

Off you go.

Great job.

You are really listening very carefully there to which one sounded correct.

So the park was full of elegant deers or deer.

Deer is our correct one there.

It's one that's the same singular as it is plural.

I caught several fish, fishes with my new fishing rod.

It's fish again, same plural as it is singular.

And the sheeps, sheep need to be shor before the weather gets too hot.

So they need to have their wool shorn, shaved off of them.

So there it's sheep.

Again, same singular as it is plural.

So I hope you've been paying attention 'cause it's our opportunity now to spell some of these irregular nouns.

Remember to sound it out.

Think of the root word if there is one.

Remember any spelling rules and then to read and check the word.

So our first word is women.

The women gathered together Two, formulae.

I was asked to solve the formulae or formulae.

Three indices, the plural of index and four people, the plural of person and five geese, the plural of goose.

So we have women, formula, indices, people, geese.

Off you go team.

Excellent job.

Really, really, really careful thinking there.

And the most important thing I saw there as well, lots of children checking and looking back.

Sometimes just by looking carefully at the word that we've written, we can see whether we think it's spelt correctly or not.

So the first one was women.

Now our root word here is woman, isn't it? But we don't say women's, we say women.

So it's that wom but then en.

There's actually a men in women.

That's how I remember that.

Formulae or formulae was the next one.

Now we didn't say formulas.

Some people may, but formulae was what I was looking for.

It's that ae at the end there, like the antennae of a butterfly.

Indices was the next one.

Some people may say indexes, but indices is what I was after.

It's that I-N-D-I-C-E-S.

That soft C, indices.

There you go.

The next one was people.

Be careful with this one.

P-E-O-P-L-E, people.

That's how I remember that one.

That all spelled le and don't forget that eo in the middle.

And finally, geese, this is goose as our singular.

Geese is our plural.

So we didn't say gooses, we say geese.

That double o is replaced by the double e and then it's se geese.

Great.

This is quite tricky, isn't it? So make sure you check through now, make any corrections and share your learning with those around you.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

onto our final learning cycle then, which is to practise and apply spellings.

We are going to begin by looking carefully at some curriculum words.

So let's read the following words.

Equip.

Equip.

Equipment.

These words are linked, aren't they? Now say 'em again.

Do you think there's any particular element of these spellings that might be quite difficult? Pause the video and have a think.

Brilliant.

Really great thinking there, team.

So I've noticed in particular, the e at the beginning of each of these words is not particularly stressed.

I don't say equip, equipment, I say equip.

So it is an unstressed vowel sound there.

Equipment has that ment suffix in it as well.

We've added that to equip.

And in equipment it can be difficult sometimes to hear the p 'cause we are adding that ment suffix.

So equip and equipment, bear these in mind.

So with that in mind, can you point to the correct spelling of these curriculum wise that we just looked at? Point to equip.

off you go.

Great job.

So it's E-Q-U-I-P.

Watch out for that vowel at the beginning.

Equipment, what suffix have I added here? If you know the spelling of equip, you should know the first part of this word.

Off you go.

Fantastic is my root word equip.

And I've added my ment suffix equipment.

So spelling rules can help us to know how to spell words, but there's actually no replacement for old spelling practise as well.

And you should always practise the spellings that you're looking at to really embed them into your memory.

Particularly these words with irregular spellings because there's no obvious patterns, remember.

So when you practise, you remember the words more easily, you become more confident with writing and reading them, and you also then get better at noticing the difficult parts of them and how they're spelled.

There are many different strategies that we can use.

And today we're gonna be looking at using the naughty letter strategy.

Can you say it for me? Naughty letters.

This is particularly useful when looking at these irregular spellings 'cause they may have a letter or two.

Which is a little bit confusing.

So the naughty letter strategy helps us in several ways.

The first is we have to really look carefully at the word and really pay close attention to any tricky parts in that spelling.

Then we get to copy the word out, spelling it correctly, and we show the tricky part written slightly larger than the rest of the word.

We could even add a naughty face onto it as well.

So for instance, you can see here I've taken the plural of axis, like the axis on a graph are axes.

Okay, our x and y axes, plural.

So I've, in my opinion here, looked carefully at the word and it's that e, axes, that's making that strange e sound, isn't it? Axes, axes.

So I've decided e is my naughty letter.

So I've written it larger and you can see I've added a naughty face to it as well.

That's going to help me remember it.

So what order do these go in for this strategy? Copy with naughty letter or look carefully.

Put them in the correct order now.

Great job.

Of course, we always look carefully at spelling and then we copy with the naughty letter or letters larger and then put a naughty face on them.

We should always, always, no matter the spelling strategy we're using, look carefully to spelling before we practise them to consider the difficult parts of them.

So I want you now to choose three spellings, and this is individual to you.

Three spellings from the spellings we've been looking at today.

Perhaps from those irregular plurals or those curriculum words that we've looked at.

And use the naughty letter strategy.

So choose three words and then look at them very carefully.

Consider the naughty letter or letters.

Write them out and copy them out.

Making sure you spelling them correctly with those letters bigger.

And add some naughty faces.

Choose the spellings that you found most difficult in this lesson.

Off you go, team.

Excellent job.

So I've chosen axes, people and equipment because in axes there was that naughty e, in people there's that o, isn't there? People.

And in equipment, there's that vowel, which is unstressed at the beginning of that e.

So I've copied them out correctly and I've copied those naughty letters out larger.

And you may have even added some faces on.

Did you enjoy writing 'em out this way? Why don't you share with me or those around you your favourite words that you've written out? And why don't you explain also why you've picked those as your naughty letters.

Off you go.

Great job in spelling today, team.

We've been looking at irregular plural nouns.

Irregular plural nouns follow spelling rules, and we often an an s to create those plurals.

There are no regular rules for irregular plurals.

You just have to learn them.

Examples of irregular plurals include formulae, women, teeth, and indices.

Often we can use the root word or singular noun to help us spell the plural noun.

Saying the word in a sentence can help to hear if it sounds or looks correct.

Keep up the great spelling and see if you can spot any more of these irregular plurals in your reading.

I'll see you again soon.