HOW DO WE MAKE A NOUN PLURAL
Overview
This lesson is aimed at ELL students, it includes basic elements of grammar such as the meaning of a noun, as part of a complete sentence. It also includes seven mini-lessons to explain some of the English language rules to convert a single noun into a plural noun.
The lesson includes some practice and a quiz to check knowledge acquisition.
There is no specific grade as it is part of ELL instruction.
ELL Lesson, nouns- singular and plural
Make sure students understand the difference between singular and plural before explaining the rules.
English Language Arts aimed at ELL students. Basic Language structure
Nouns-Plurals
Beginners to Intermediate English Language Learners
In this lesson, students will be able to learn how to change a singular noun to a plural noun.
This lesson is in person or online and can be taught as a series of mini-lessons, adding rules one at a time but adding the practice of all rules together for mastery.
This lesson can be extended for at least 7 mini-lessons.
In English, when we talk about a thing, a place, a person, or an animal we are referring to nouns. For example, the dog or the beach. These words can be singular if it is just one or plural if there is more than one. How do we make a noun plural?
Background for Teachers.
Teachers need to understand that ESL students may have a difficult time following rules for changing singular nouns into plural. Their language may be more or less complicated and the rules might be opposite or non-sense.
You can use this guide to teach the students to understand how to use nouns and what the plural rules are, but you also need to practice. Practice will be key to mastering this concept.
Even more confusing is the fact that several nouns don’t follow standard rules. This means that students might need to learn the "irregular" nouns and practice in context.
Practicing the written use of plural nouns is highly recommended as well as oral practicing 1-on-1 with an English speaker This helps put grammar rules such as plurals into real-life and will make it much easier to remember.
Goals and Outcomes
Connections: Prior Knowledge/ Building Background / Prior Learning
Learning intentions:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe nouns and will be able to know how to make singular nouns plural
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe and explain what a noun is, what are the types of nouns, and some of the rules to make them plural
Success criteria
Students will learn the rules to create a plural noun.
Students will be able to understand that there are some irregularities in the rules when forming plural nouns.
Students will be able to create plural nouns and use them in sentences.
Planning Instruction
The teacher will explain and give plenty of examples to make students understand the concepts.
What is a plural noun?
A plural noun is a word that indicates there is more than one noun. Singular nouns are words that mean there is only one noun. For example, ‘dog – dogs’.
What is an irregular plural noun?
An irregular plural noun is a noun that doesn’t follow the usual ‘regular’ rules of English grammar. For example, to make most nouns plural, you add ‘s’ or ‘es’. For example, ‘dog - dogs’. Irregular plural nouns don’t follow the same pattern, for example, ‘child – children’.
What is a plural possessive noun?
A plural possessive noun is a word that indicates ownership when there is more than one of noun. For example, ‘Mrs. Van’s pens’.
Student Background Knowledge
teachers can use the following link to Grammarly an online resource to help people learn more about grammar, the use, and its practice.
Prior to this lesson, students will need to have an understanding of what a noun is,
- different types of nouns
- what is plural
- what is singular
Strategies for Diverse Learners
This lesson is created for ELL, scaffolding will be provided by showing images and realia that make the concept less abstract.
Instruction
Wrap-up: Ask your students, "Why is it important to learn how to form plural nouns? What are the different rules for creating a plural noun?
Singular and Plural Nouns
Nouns can take several forms not only plural and singular.
A singular noun names only one person, animal, place, thing, or idea. A noun that names two or more people, animals, places, things, or ideas is a plural noun.
How do you make a singular noun plural? Most of the time making a singular noun plural is as simple as adding an s to the end of the word.
Singular | Plural |
---|---|
pen | pens |
notebook | notebooks |
rat | rats |
dog | dogs |
cup | cups |
However, some nouns don't follow this rule, and they're known as irregular nouns. How do I change a singular irregular noun to a plural?
First. As we explained nouns have two forms: singular and plural. Singular refers to a single person, place, or thing and is easy to understand. For example:
‘I clean the room’
In this sentence, the noun is the word ‘room’ and it is singular because there is only one. If there were more than one room, the sentence would be:
‘I clean the rooms?’
In this case, to change the noun from singular to plural, you just add an ‘-s’. However, that isn’t the rule for every noun. We’ll look in more detail at the different plural rules for nouns below.
Share with the students that, “Most of the time you just have to add an –s to a noun in order to make it plural. For example, I found my car. What if I found more than one car? What would my sentence be then?”
Share another example: “I like painting the wall
What if I paint more than one wall? How does my sentence change? The rule here is that you add –s to the end of the noun to make it plural. However, this rule doesn’t work with every noun. When nouns end in ch, sh, s, x, z, you add –es. For example, the fox ran into a hole. What if there was more than one fox? How would the sentence change?”
Write 2 more examples on the board with nouns ending in ch, sh, s, x, or z, and have students explain how the sentence would change with more than one noun.
Say, “The last rule we will learn today is for a noun that ends in 'y.'” For example, ‘The baby is beautiful.’ What if there was more than one baby?” Give one more similar example
So again, what is a plural noun?
A plural noun is a word that indicates there is more than one noun. Singular nouns are words that mean there is only one noun. For example, ‘dog – dogs’.
What is an irregular plural noun?
An irregular plural noun is a noun that doesn’t follow the usual ‘regular’ rules of English grammar. For example, to make most nouns plural, you add ‘s’ or ‘es’. For example, ‘dog - dogs’. Irregular plural nouns don’t follow the same pattern, for example, ‘child – children’.
This lesson will cover some simple rules for plural nouns in English and how to use them in sentences.
Lesson 1 - Adding an s and es suffixes
Singular nouns can be changed into plural nouns using different rules.
Most plural nouns in English are regular. That means you can simply add -s or -es to make them plural.
To form regular plurals, follow these rules.
→ For most nouns, just add -s to make them plural.
For example:
- car → cars
- door→ doors
- plate → plates
- rat → rats
- lamp → lamps
lesson 2- Adding y or ies suffixes
→ If a noun ends in a consonant followed by o, add suffix-es to make them plural.
For example:
- hero → heroes
- tomato → tomatoes
- volcano → volcanoes
Note: There are some exceptions to this rule:
- solo → solos
- piano → pianos
- memento → mementos
- halo → halos
→ If a noun ends in a vowel followed by o, add -s to make them plural.
Lesson 3- O endings
→ If a noun ends in a consonant followed by o, add -es to make them plural.
For example:
- hero → heroes
- tomato → tomatoes
- volcano → volcanoes
Note: There are some exceptions to this rule:
- solo → solos
- piano → pianos
- memento → mementos
- halo → halos
Lesson 4- F and FE endings
→ If a noun ends in a vowel followed by o, add -s to make them plural.
For example:
- studio → studios
- cameo → cameos
- portfolio → portfolios
→ For nouns ending in f and f/fe, change "f/fe" to "v" and add -es to make them plural.
For example:
- shelf → shelves
- half → halves
- knife → knives
Note: There are some exceptions to this rule:
For example:
- roof → roofs
- safe → safes
- grief → griefs
- kerchief → kerchiefs
- chef → chefs
Lesson 5 Some s and Z endings
If the singular noun ends in ‑s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z, add ‑es to the end to make it plural.
- truss – trusses
- bus – buses
- marsh – marshes
- lunch – lunches
- tax – taxes
- blitz – blitzes
- In some cases, singular nouns ending in -s or -z, require that you double the -s or -z prior to adding the -es for pluralization.
- fez – fezzes
- gas –gasses (note that gases is also acceptable, and more commonly used, the spelling of this plural noun)
Lesson 6 Irregular plurals
Some nouns change a few letters or complete spelling. You have to memorize these nouns.
For example:
- man → men
- woman → women
- child → children
- person → people
→ Some nouns are the same in both singular and plural form.
For example:
- deer → deer
- sheep → sheep
- fish → fish
- series → series
→ Some nouns are always singular. They have no plural form.
→ Often, that is because these nouns are uncountable, so the singular form is used to refer to the entire quantity rather than one, two, or more countable items.
For example:
- gold
- silver
- flour
- sugar
Lesson 7 regular plurals that are the same
→ Some nouns have no singular form. These nouns are always plural.
For example:
- scissors
- trousers
- pants
- glasses
→ Some nouns are used with modifiers. If that is the case, change the noun, not the modifiers.
For example:
- daughter-in-law → daughters-in-law
- brother-in-law → brothers-in-law
- guest of honor → guests of honor
- minister of education → ministers of education
Step 4 - Assessments
1. Create a graphic organizer with three columns, make a list of about 5 nouns for each column, and scrambled them for them to organize under each column.
word bank should include all types of nouns correspondomg to the rules explaines.
noun | regular | irregular |