3rd Grade spelling
3rd Grade Irregular Plurals
Irregular plurals spelling list: child to children, mouse to mice, leaf to leaves, foot to feet. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: Plurals that do not just add s: child becomes children, mouse becomes mice, leaf becomes leaves.
Most English nouns form the plural by adding s or es: cat becomes cats and box becomes boxes. Irregular plurals break this rule, either by changing the word inside, as in foot and feet, or by adding a different ending, as in child and children. Some do not change at all: sheep, deer and fish stay the same. These forms are old, and they survive because common words resist change.
On the list, each word is shown with its singular. The inside-change group has men, women, feet, teeth, geese and mice. Words ending in f or fe change to ves: leaves, knives, wolves, lives, halves, shelves and thieves. A few borrow Latin endings, such as cacti and fungi, and some add es after o, like potatoes, tomatoes, heroes and echoes. Oxen is the last survivor of an old en plural. Children need to see these as families, not as separate facts.
32 entries. Our solver needed 3.0 wrong guesses on average: 10 easy, 16 medium and 6 hard. The toughest is mice (9 misses), the quickest scarves (0).
- children · child Easy · 1
- men · man Hard · 7
- women · woman Medium · 4
- feet · foot Hard · 6
- teeth · tooth Medium · 2
- geese · goose Easy · 1
- mice · mouse Hard · 9
- people · person Medium · 4
- oxen · ox Hard · 6
- sheep · sheep Easy · 1
- deer · deer Easy · 1
- fish · fish Hard · 5
- moose · moose Medium · 2
- leaves · leaf Medium · 3
- knives · knife Medium · 4
- wolves · wolf Medium · 3
- lives · life Medium · 4
- halves · half Medium · 2
- calves · calf Medium · 3
- loaves · loaf Medium · 2
- shelves · shelf Medium · 3
- thieves · thief Medium · 3
- wives · wife Hard · 8
- elves · elf Easy · 1
- scarves · scarf Easy · 0
- cacti · cactus Medium · 3
- fungi · fungus Medium · 3
- octopuses · octopus Medium · 2
- potatoes · potato Easy · 1
- tomatoes · tomato Easy · 1
- heroes · hero Easy · 0
- echoes · echo Easy · 1
Words worth a closer look
- peoplePlural of person. The plural word is more common than its singular, and it is spelled eople, not like a regular plural.
- octopusesThe us ending takes es, and octopi is a Latin-style plural sometimes used for the same word. Both appear in dictionaries.
- scarvesScarf changes f to v and adds es. Scarfs is also acceptable in many dictionaries.
- sheepSame in the singular and plural. Context tells you which is meant.
- potatoesWords ending in o sometimes take es, as in potatoes, tomatoes, heroes and echoes, but not photos or pianos.
Teaching it
The most common mistake is regularizing: writing childs, mouses, foots or sheeps. Treat this as a sign of understanding the rule, since it means the student has learned that plurals add s. Then show that these words are exceptions and that every English speaker has to memorize them. Grouping by the type of change makes this much easier.
In hangman, give the singular as the clue and have players solve the plural. The pairs on the printable make a good matching game. Another idea is to have students write a short story that must include five irregular plurals, such as two geese and three mice on a shelf, and underline them.
Print a 3rd Grade Irregular Plurals worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
- 3rd Grade Words With the Prefix UnSpelling words that start with the prefix un, meaning not, like unhappy, unfair, unsafe and unlucky. Play hangman or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 3rd Grade Words With the Prefix ReSpelling words that start with the prefix re, usually meaning again, like rebuild, restart, replace and remove. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 3rd Grade Words With the Prefix DisSpelling words starting with the prefix dis, meaning not or the opposite of, like disagree, dislike, disappear and discount. Play hangman or print a list.
- 3rd Grade Words Ending in Ful and LessSpelling words ending in ful and less, like helpful, hopeful, careless and homeless. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 3rd Grade Words Ending in LySpelling words ending in ly, like quickly, slowly, finally and friendly. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.
- 3rd Grade Words Ending in NessSpelling words ending in ness, like kindness, sadness, darkness and happiness. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with an answer key.