Printable irregular plural nouns worksheets
Free printable irregular noun worksheets for ESL and general English study. Here we have a variety of fun activities to keep the subject interesting and your classes engaged.
The first 2 handouts simply require learners to identify the words in the pictures and write their singular and plural form. For reference, the answers to the first worksheet above should be –
1 – goose, 2 – geese, 3 – knife, 4 – knives
5 – man, 6 – men, 7 – leaf, 8 – leaves
9 – tooth, 10 – teeth, 11 – deer, 12 – deer
13 – foot, 14 – feet, 15 – wolf, 16 – wolves
What is an irregular plural noun?
Regular plural nouns are formed by adding s or es to the end of the word. Examples of these cats, or boxes. Irregular plural nouns are not formed in this way. They are formed in a variety of ways and sometimes with no rule at all.
Sometimes they are formed by changing the vowel in the word such as – man to men, or goose to geese.
Nouns ening in –f or –fe often drop these letters and add –ves. Examples are wolf to wolves, or knife to knives.
Nouns ending in –us usually drop those letters and add an i. Words like this include – cactus to cacti, or octopus to octopi.
Some nouns undergo changes that don’t follow the above rules due to historical linguistic reasons. Words like this include – mouse to mice, and person to people.
There are also irregular nouns that don’t change at all when becoming plural. Examples are – sheep, fish, deer, police, and corn.
Many nouns from Greek and Latin also undergo other different changes when becoming plural.
Irregular plural nouns worksheet 2
This handout has 16 more pictures of nouns in singular and plural form to be named. If your students are’nt sure of the pictures, help them out by giving them the singular form.
The answers should be written as –
1 – shrimp, 2- shrimp, 3 – cactus, 4 – cacti
5 – child, 6 – children, 7 – fish/salmon, 8 – fish/salmon
9 – woman, 10 – women, 11 – scarf, 12 – scarves
13 – loaf, 14 – loaves, 15 – mouse, 16 – mice
Irregular plural noun maze
In this fun activity, students must find their way from start to finish following the irregular plural nouns.
Moves can only be made in a horizontal or vertical direction (not diagonal).
The path to follow is –
START – wolf – corn – knife – wife – woman – tuna – child – dwarf – tooth – aircraft – goose – thief – half – quiz – shelf – fish – man – leaf – life – mouse – ox – deer – person – FINISH
Irregular plural noun search
On this printable, students must find the correct 18 words and circle them. There are 39 words in total including the word tooth.
The irregular plural nouns on this worksheet to be circled are –
cactus, police, salmon, jeans, wife, mouse, calf, foot, knife, ox, man, dwarf, fungus, fish, child, wolf, octopus, and rice.
Once your class has completed this activity, you can get them to write the plural form of the correct answers.
