Here are some additional exercises to practice making regular and irregular plural nouns:

Regular Plural Nouns

Look at each plural word in the table below. Write the singular version of the word and explain which rule the plural has used in its formation. For example:

• vultures is the plural of vulture. Despite vultures ending in –es, you simply add an –s to form the plural, as the e is a part of the singular word.
• fries is the plural of fry. To form the plural, the y was changed to an i, and we added –es.

trees		sopranos		watches
tomatoes		waltzes		wrists
reefs		leaves		flies
cafes		caves		boys

Irregular Plural Nouns

Look at each plural word in the table below. Write the singular version of the word and explain which rule the plural has used in its formation. For example:

• oxen is the plural of ox. This is an –en noun. To form the plural, an -en was added.
• stimuli is the plural of stimulus. The singular ends with a -us, so the plural ends with an -i.

children		moose		teeth
squid		men		lice
memoranda		hypotheses		phenomena
parentheses		emphases		nuclei
foci		vertebrae		appendices

Regular and Irregular Plural Nouns

Look at each word in the table below. Identify if the words is singular or plural, then write the other version of the word and explain which rule the plural has used in its formation. For example:

• stimuli is the plural of stimulus. The singular ends with a -us, so the plural ends with an -i.
• ox is the singular of oxen. This is an –en noun. To form the plural, an -en was added.

chiefs		toys		quiz
bacterium		crisis		criteria
octopus		larvae		indices
wolves		sheep		woman