New
New
Year 6

Forming irregular plural nouns

I can spell common irregular plural nouns that do not follow clear rules.

New
New
Year 6

Forming irregular plural nouns

I can spell common irregular plural nouns that do not follow clear rules.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Regular plurals follow spelling rules.
  2. There are no rules for irregular plurals; you just have to learn them.
  3. Examples of irregular plural nouns include: formula - formulae, woman - women, tooth - teeth, index - indices.
  4. We can look for naughty letters to help us to remember tricky spellings.
  5. How to spell the curriculum words: equip and equipment.

Keywords

  • Suffix - a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning

  • Root word - the base word from which other words are formed often by adding prefixes or suffixes

  • Singular - only one

  • Plural - more than one

  • Irregular - means not conforming to a regular or predictable pattern

Common misconception

Pupils will apply common plural rules to singular nouns that have irregular plural patterns.

Use spelling strategies such as 'big letters' or 'colour blocks' to help pick out the tricky elements of irregular plural spellings and embed them in the memory.

Give pupils cloze sentence activities featuring deleted irregular plurals. Using a spelling in the context of a sentence can help pupils to hear what sounds right and this, in turn, will help them to spell the word correctly.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
What happens when the noun 'tray' becomes plural?
Correct answer: Just add -s
Just add -es
Remove the ‘y’, add -ies
Remove the ‘f’ or ‘fe’, add -ves
Q2.
What happens when the noun 'story' becomes plural?
Just add -s
Just add -es
Correct answer: Remove the ‘y’, add -ies
Remove the ‘f’ or ‘fe’, add -ves
Q3.
What happens when the noun 'kiss' becomes plural?
Just add -s
Correct answer: Just add -es
Remove the ‘y’, add -ies
Remove the ‘f’ or ‘fe’, add -ves
Q4.
What happens when the noun 'knife' becomes plural?
Just add -s
Just add -es
Remove the ‘y’, add -ies
Correct answer: Remove the ‘f’ or ‘fe’, add -ves
Q5.
Which of these are irregular past tense verbs?
Correct answer: run - ran
jog - jogged
Correct answer: go - went
play - played
Correct answer: see - saw
Q6.
Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the sentence. My younger brother loves it when I read him storees.
Correct Answer: stories, stories.

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the nouns to the rules they demonstrate when becoming plural.
Correct Answer:shoe - shoes,Just add -s

Just add -s

Correct Answer:brush - brushes,Just add -es

Just add -es

Correct Answer:city - cities,Remove the ‘y’, add -ies

Remove the ‘y’, add -ies

Correct Answer:elf - elves,Remove ‘f’ or ‘fe’, add -ves

Remove ‘f’ or ‘fe’, add -ves

Q2.
Identify the irregular plurals.
table - tables
Correct answer: man - men
worry - worries
Correct answer: tooth - teeth
Correct answer: cactus - cacti
Q3.
Match the singular noun to its plural.
Correct Answer:child,children

children

Correct Answer:antenna,antennae

antennae

Correct Answer:ox,oxen

oxen

Correct Answer:index,indices

indices

Q4.
Write the correct spelling of the word in bold in the sentence. Gooses often fly in a 'V' formation.
Correct Answer: Geese, geese
Q5.
Write the correct spelling of the word in bold in the sentence. I counted seven dears in the woodland copse.
Correct Answer: deer
Q6.
Write the correct spelling of the word in bold in the sentence. Don't forget to label both axises on your graph.
Correct Answer: axes

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