STRUCTURE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION SKILL 41: RECOGNIZE IRREGULAR PLURAL OF NOUNS

STRUCTURE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION

SKILL 41: RECOGNIZE IRREGULAR PLURAL OF NOUNS

The irregular forms that are the most problematic are plural forms that do not end in s.

Different criteria was* used to evaluate the performers.

In this example the plural noun criteria looks singular because it does not end in s; you might incorrectly assume that it is singular because there is no final s. however, criteria is a plural noun, so the singular verb was used is incorrect. The verb should be the plural form were used.

The following chart lists the irregular plurals that you should become familiar with

IRREGULAR PLURALS
vowel change	man/men woman/women	foot/feet tooth/teeth	goose/geese mouse/mice
Add -EN	child/children	ox/oxen
Same as singular	deer/deer fish/fish	salmon/salmon sheep/sheep	trout/trout
-IS ------ -ES	analysis/analyses axis/axes crisis/crises	diagnosis/diagnoses hypothesis/hypotheses parenthesis/parentheses	synthesis/syntheses thesis/theses
Ends in -A	bacterium/bacteria curriculum/curricula	datum/data phenomenon/phenomena	criterion/criteria
-US --------- I	alumnus/alumni bacillus/bacilli cactus/cacti	fungus/fungi nucleus/nuclei radius/radii	stimulus/stimuli syllabus/syllabi

EXERCISE 40: Each of the following sentences contains at least one noun with an irregular plural. Circle the nouns with irregular plurals. Then indicate if the sentences are correct (C) or incorrect (I).

……………	3	The syllabi for the courses is included in the packet of materials.
……………	4	The diagnosis that he heard today were not very positive.
……………	5	The crisis is not going to be resolved until some of the pressure is relieved.
……………	6	All of the alumni are attending the reception at the president’s house.
……………	7	A flock of geese were seen heading south for the winter.
……………	8	The teeth in the back of his mouth needs to be capped.
……………	9	The fungi has spread throughout the garden.
……………	10	The sheepdog is chasing after the sheep which are heading over the hill.

ANSWER KEY

1	I	(is should be are)
2	C
3	I	(is should be are)
4	I	(were should be was)
5	C
6	C
7	I	(were should be was)
8	I	(teeth should be tooth)
9	I	(fungi should be fungus)
10	C