Most plurals just add -s or -es, but some of the oldest words in English do their own thing. In Mice & Geese Meadow, Year 2 writers collect the rule-breakers: words that change their vowels, swap -f for -ves, or don’t change at all.
What your child will learn
- Know common plurals that change the word: mice, feet, teeth, men, women, children, geese
- Change -f or -fe to -ves in words like leaves, wolves and knives
- Know words that stay the same: sheep, fish and deer
- Spot the correct plural in a sentence
Three kinds of rule-breaker
Some words change in the middle: foot becomes feet and goose becomes geese. Some change at the end: leaf becomes leaves and child becomes children. And a few don’t change: one sheep, ten sheep.
These plurals can’t be worked out from a rule — they simply have to be heard, read and remembered. The good news is that there are not very many of them.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. What is the plural of “child”?
- children
- childs
- childrens
- childes
Show answer
Answer: children. One child, two children.
2. What is the plural of “man”?
- men
- mens
- mans
- manes
Show answer
Answer: men. One man, two men.
3. What is the plural of “foot”?
- feets
- feet
- foots
- footes
Show answer
Answer: feet. One foot, two feet.
Tips for grown-ups
- Play “one and lots”: you say “one tooth”, your child says “lots of teeth”.
- When your child says “mouses” or “foots”, gently say the sentence back the right way.
- Look for tricky plurals in story books — farms and forests are full of them.