About this activity
Fourteen irregular plurals: foot and feet, tooth and teeth, mouse and mice, goose and geese, child and children, man and men, woman and women, person and people, leaf and leaves, knife and knives, wolf and wolves, and three that do not change at all — sheep, fish and deer. The three no-change ones are the interesting group, because there is no marker to produce.
How to use it in a session
Sort them into kinds. Foot to feet and tooth to teeth change the vowel; leaf to leaves and knife to knives change the final consonant and add an s; child to children and person to people are one-offs; sheep, fish and deer do nothing. Four groups is easier to hold than fourteen facts. Then use them with a number — three mice, five children — which forces the plural. Ten minutes covers the set.
What to listen for
Listen for regularisation and double marking. Foots is regularisation; feets is double marking, and both show the rule is present. Watch the unchanging plurals specifically: three sheep with no marker is the hardest of these to produce, because it requires suppressing a rule rather than applying one, and students often say sheeps long after they have mastered feet.
Carrying it home
Counting things gives plurals for free. Two feet, three fish, five children — the number forces the plural and the child hears the correct form in a real sentence.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, and older students learning English as an additional language.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all fourteen pairs play with no account.
- Why does 'sheep' stay the same?
- It is a historical leftover, along with fish and deer. There is no rule to work it out, so these are learned individually — and they are harder than they look, because the student has to suppress the s rather than add one.