Irregular plurals
Learn the irregular plural form of common English nouns, like "child" becomes "children" or "mouse" becomes "mice".
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Flashcards
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Listen to the word and type it. Great for practicing spelling and pronunciation.
Match
Match the words against the clock. A fun, low-pressure way to review.
Terms in this deck
- childchildren
- manmen
- womanwomen
- personpeople
- toothteeth
- footfeet
- mousemice
- goosegeese
- oxoxen
- louselice
- fishfish
- sheepsheep
- deerdeer
- moosemoose
- speciesspecies
- seriesseries
- aircraftaircraft
- salmonsalmon
- trouttrout
- shrimpshrimp
- halfhalves
- knifeknives
- wifewives
- lifelives
- leafleaves
- loafloaves
- shelfshelves
- wolfwolves
- calfcalves
- elfelves
- scarfscarves
- thiefthieves
- hoofhooves
- potatopotatoes
- tomatotomatoes
- heroheroes
- echoechoes
- volcanovolcanoes
- cactuscacti
- focusfoci
- fungusfungi
- nucleusnuclei
- syllabussyllabi
- stimulusstimuli
- radiusradii
- alumnusalumni
- analysisanalyses
- crisiscrises
- thesistheses
- diagnosisdiagnoses
- parenthesisparentheses
- basisbases
- axisaxes
- phenomenonphenomena
- criterioncriteria
- datumdata
- mediummedia
- bacteriumbacteria
- curriculumcurricula
- memorandummemoranda
- millenniummillennia
- indexindices
- appendixappendices
- matrixmatrices
- vertexvertices
- formulaformulae
- antennaantennae
- vertebravertebrae
How to study this deck
These nouns do not form the plural with -s. Group them by pattern: they change a vowel (man, men; foot, feet), change the ending (leaf, leaves; knife, knives), add -en (child, children) or do not change (sheep, fish, deer). Learn each with its plural and practice with sentences using the plural as the subject: "The children are here".
The trickiest words
- person / people: the plural of person is people: "Two people", not "two persons". "Persons" is formal and legal.
- fish: it does not change: "one fish, two fish". "Fishes" exists only for different species.
- half / halves: the f changes to v: half, halves; wife, wives; life, lives.
Examples in context
The children are playing outside.
The oxen pulled the heavy cart.
We bought fresh salmon at the market.
She bought two loaves of bread.
Add some tomatoes to the salad.
The professor gave us the syllabi for both courses.
The decision was made on different bases.
The office sent out several memoranda.
Mini dialogue
- A: How many children do you have?
- B: Two. Two boys and two dogs.
- A: Are there many people at the party?
- B: Yes, all the men, women and children of the street.