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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha and today we're going to talk about "10 Countable Nouns with Irregular Plural Forms." Let's go. |
| mouse - mice. |
| The first noun is "mouse." In the singular, it's "mouse," in the plural, it's "mice." One mouse, two mice. Not "mouses," not "mis," not anything like that. Not "mouse" or "mouses," but "mice." One mouse, two mice, three mice, four mice. In a sentence, "I hope you don't have mice in your house." |
| goose - geese. |
| So, the next word is "goose." A goose is a kind of big noisy bird, really. But, a goose in the plural form--a "goose" becomes a "geese." So, one goose, two geese. The collective noun as well. So, the noun we use to talk about a group of geese is a flock of geese. We use "flock" for birds actually for collective. Except for crows. For some reason, we use a "murder of crows." Isn't that weird? I'm not sure about the history of that word but we say, "a flock of birds" or "a flock of seagulls." So, "a flock of geese," but we use a "murder of crows." That's such a weird collective noun when you think about it. I got research the history on that one. Anyway, in a sentence, "Geese migrate south in the winter." |
| tooth - teeth. |
| The next noun is "tooth." So, the singular form is tooth, the plural form is teeth. One tooth, three teeth. So, please be careful. Not "tooths" but "teeth." Tooth is an irregular noun. Tooth, teeth. In a sentence, "The tooth fairy is a mystical creature that brings children money for teeth they've lost." |
| foot - feet. |
| The next noun is "foot." So, one foot, two feet. So, we can use this both for the part of the body and for the system of measurement that we use in the US and I think in one other country. We measure things using feet. So, like one foot is what? Twelve inches, I think. And then, two feet. We can also use this kind of for the system of measurement. One foot, two feet. So, please be careful of that. Not "foots" but feet. Feet in the plural form. In a sentence, "Keep your feet on the ground." |
| child - children. |
| Okay. The next one is "child." Please be careful, a child is the singular form, children is the plural form. Children. One child, two children, many children, lots of children. So, but be careful not "childs," children is the plural form here. Please be careful. In a sentence, "Some people want to have lots of children." |
| person - people. |
| The next word is "person." In the singular, one person, in the plural form, people. Two people, three people, four people, many people, lots of people, tons of people, a bunch of people. "People" is the plural form there. So, please use "people" when you want to use the plural form of "person." One person, two people. In a sentence, "The world is full of different people." |
| man - men. |
| The next noun is "man." In the singular form, "man," in the plural form, "men." Please be careful. The pronunciation, the vowel sound pronunciation changes significantly. Not "mans," but "men." One man, two men, three men for men, one man, two men. So, listen for that /e/ sound or the /a/ sound there. This can be a really key listening point as well. In a sentence, "More and more men are taking paternity leave these days." |
| woman - women. |
| The next noun is "woman." The singular form is "woman," the plural form is "women." So, please be careful here. Although the spellings of these two words are roughly the same and only the vowel sound at the end appears to change. Actually, the /o/ sound at the beginning of the word also changes. In the singular form, /woman./ So, we have this sort of /oo/ sound with the O at the beginning of the word, "woman" in singular. In the plural form, however, we have /women,/ it's an /e/ sound. So, in spelling, the O does not change. But, in speaking, the sound does change. "Woman," "women." So, please be cautious of this. Both when you're speaking and when you're listening. Woman to women, one woman, two women. In a sentence, "Look, those women are all wearing the same hat." |
| sheep - sheep. |
| The next noun is "sheep." A "sheep" is the next noun. Now, the plural form is actually just "sheep." We cannot add an s to this. We don't say "sheeps." We say "sheep" for the singular and "sheep" for the plural. Weird, right? So, one sheep, two sheep, three sheep, four sheep. It's no change. This word does not change at all. So, how do we know? We just look at the word that comes before sheep. So, if we say "two sheep" or "lots of sheep" or "a herd of sheep." "Herd" is the collective noun for sheep or for like cattle and farm animals, big ones anyway. So, "sheep" does not change actually, It's an irregular one. The same rule applies to "fish," actually. "Fish" in the singular, "fish" in the plural. Anyway, "sheep" in a sentence. "Visit a farm if you want to see lots of sheep." |
| knife - knives. |
| The next noun is "knife." So, one knife in the singular form. In plural form, it is "knives." So, there's a V sound that comes into this word. "Knife," that F sound, "knife," becomes a V sound in the plural, "knives." One knife, two knives. We also see this with the word, "scarf," actually. One scarf, two scarves, for example. So, please be careful of this. So, the spelling does change significantly as well too. In a sentence then, "I hear you only really need three knives in your kitchen." |
| So, those are "10 Countable Nouns with Irregular Plural Forms." These are just a few examples of irregular plural forms. There are many others. So, if you have some others or if you have questions about other nouns, please let us know in the comments section. |
| Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye. |
| One people--in the plural form. I gotta do that again. Okay. |
| Fish, also. Fish also follows this rule, actually. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. If you are familiar with Dr. Seuss, that is. I don't know how many viewers are familiar with Dr. Seuss but fish follows the sheep rule. |
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