Download Puzzling Plurals

Puzzling Plurals
Designed by Lisa Fleckenstein
White Oak
Puzzling Plurals
The most usual way to make a singular
noun plural is to add an ‘s’. For example,
word/words. But there are some other
ways of making plurals.
 You should NEVER use an apostrophe (‘s)
to make a word plural. Apostrophes
show the owner of something like my
daughter’s books. They also mark missing
letters in contractions like the ‘o’ in are
not looks like aren’t.

Puzzling Plurals
IES: if a noun ends in ‘y’, look at the letter
before the ‘y’. If it is a vowel, just add an
‘s’.
 If you look at the letter before the ‘y’ and
it is a consonant, change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and
add es.

Puzzling Plurals
Let’s work on this rule with your elbow
partner!
 Decide how to make the following words
plural. Remember to tell your partner
the rule that you used!
Activity, enemy, dictionary, key, trolley,
cherry, opportunity, galaxy, party, delay,
journey, factory, bully, toy, essay, ally,
dictionary, display, body, holiday

Puzzling Plurals
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VES: to form the plural of a noun ending in
‘ff’ add an ‘s’. An example is cuff/cuffs
BEWARE! Words that end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ will
need to be changed to ‘v’ and then add an
‘es’. Examples are: sheaf/sheaves,
knife/knives. There are exceptions: dwarfs,
chiefs, griefs, roofs, proofs, beliefs, and safes.
Can you believe that 3 words can be
correctly spelled either way??? They are
wharfs/warves, hoofs, hooves,
scarfs/scarves!!!!
Puzzling Plurals Word Work
Find the “VES Words” worksheet in your
spelling packet.
 Copy the rules for ‘VES’, then complete
the questions.

Puzzling Plurals

ES: To make the plural of nouns which
end in ‘ch,’ ‘sh,’ ‘s,’ ‘ss,’ ‘x,’ or ‘z’, simply add
‘es’. For example: torches, dishes, kisses,
boxes, and waltzes.

Look at your word work packet and
practice adding ‘es’.
Puzzling Plurals



OES: To make the plural of words ending in
‘o’, add ‘s’ if there is a vowel before the final
‘o’ like in zoo/zoos—or if the word has
anything to do with music: solo/solos,
soprano/sopranos. Also add ‘s’ to the words
disco (discos) and photo (photos) and the
names of peoples that end in ‘o’ such as
Filipinos.
IF there is a consonant before the final ‘o’
and the word is not found in the rule above,
then add an ‘es’ such as potatoes.
Let’s try your OES worksheets now.