Take a lesson from: Ahhrnold, the Plural-nator All the rules and tricks you need to know to form PLURALS. Take a lesson from: Ahhrnold, the Plural-nator “I take puny singular nouns and PLURAL-NATE THEM! Ha Ha!”

My name is Ahhrnold, the Plural-nator, and I plural-nate puny regular and irregular nouns and transform them into strong plurals. I do this by adding specific letters to the end of the singular noun. BUT! there are rules to follow to make sure that each noun has its correct PLURAL FORM.

For regular nouns: 2 Rules Rule #1:For most puny regular nouns all I do is add an -S at the end to PUMP THEM UP! Noun ending Forming the plural Examples consonant Add -s cat- cats chair – chairs look –looks

boss - bosses tax - taxes bush - bushes Rule #2: For words that end in a "hissing" sound (-s, -z, -x, -ch, -sh), add an -es to form the plural. Noun ending Forming the plural Examples s, x, ch or sh Add -es boss - bosses tax - taxes bush - bushes

7 rules! THAT WAS EASY! HA! BUT! OH! I love to PLURAL-nate puny SINGULAR REGULAR NOUNS !!! BUT! OH! How I enjoy turning those TRICKY IRREGULAR NOUNS from singular to PLURAL! They are more CHALLENGING having 7 rules!

Rule #1: If the word ends in a consonant plus -y, change the -y into -ie and add an -s to form the plural. For irregular nouns: Noun ending Forming the plural Examples consonant + y Change y to i then Add -es fly - flies try - tries curry - curries

Rule #2: If the word ends in a vowel plus -y (-ay, -ey, -iy, -oy, -uy), add an -s to the word. Noun ending Forming the plural Examples vowel + y Add -s key – keys way - ways boy – boys

Rule #3: For words that end in -is, change the -is to -es to make the plural form. Noun ending Forming the plural Examples -is change –is to -es thesis - theses

Rule #4: Words that end in -f or -fe have plurals that end in -ves. Noun ending Forming the plural Examples -f or -fe change –f or –fe to -ves knife - knives wife – wives life - lives elf – elves shelf – shelves

Rule #5: Words that end in -o are formed by either adding -s or by adding -es. Noun ending Forming the plural Examples -o add –s or –es studio - studios taco – tacos stereo – stereos potato – potatoes tomato – tomatoes

Rule #6: words that end with –us change the –us to -i Noun ending Forming the plural Examples ends with -us Change -us to -i cactus - cacti nucleus - nuclei focus - foci

Rule #7: if the word ends with -on change –on to -a Noun ending Forming the plural Examples ends with -on Change -on to -a phenomenon - phenomena criterion - criteria

Change the vowel or Change the word or Add a different ending AND THEN... there are those words that don’t have any rules, you just have to memorize them ALL KINDS Change the vowel or Change the word or Add a different ending man – men foot – feet child - children person – people tooth – teeth mouse – mice

And some words don’t change at all… Noun ending Forming the plural Examples Unchanging Singular and plural are the same Sheep Deer Fish Moose I don’t like those words because I can’t PLURAL-nate them! ARGGGG!!!!

Now that you know how to form plurals out of those PUNY singular regular and irregular nouns, you too can be a PLURAL-nator ! Just follow those rules, and if you ever get stuck, check the very strong, the very heavy, DICTIONARY, before I come over there and PLURAL-NATE YOU!!!

Other links and activities: Regular Nouns: Lesson & Activity http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/plural.htm http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_spelnoun.html Irregular Nouns: Lesson & Activity http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/irrplu.htm http://www.clta.on.ca/EAOnline/GrammarCentral/reallyirregular.html Games: http://fen.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/shtml.cgi?A1=../plurals/index.html http://www.quia.com/cc/67715.html