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Hello, guys.
Welcome to this English course on nouns.
In today’s video, I’m going to tell you
about irregular plural nouns.
Now there are crazy ways of making plural
forms in English.
And there are a lot of irregular forms.
I want you to know about them, so let’s
get started.
Again, guys, there are so many irregular plural
forms in English.
And I’m afraid there are no particular rules.
You just need to learn the words.
But I’m going to try and tell you about
the most common ones.
Ok?
Let’s review some words together.
Ok, so, for example.
We have a singular noun which is ‘woman’.
It’s plural form is ‘women’.
‘woman’ ‘women’
Then we have ‘man’.
The singular noun, ‘a man’, it becomes
‘men’.
‘a child’ becomes ‘children’
‘a tooth’ ‘teeth’
‘a foot’ becomes ‘feet’
‘a person’ becomes ‘people’.
‘a mouse’ becomes ‘mice’
Ok, let’s move on to pronunciation now.
Well students, let’s work on pronunciation
a bit.
Please repeat after me.
‘woman’ ‘woman’
‘women’ ‘women’
Good.
‘man’ ‘man’
‘men’ ‘men’
‘child’ ‘child’
‘children’ ‘children’
Very good guys.
Moving on.
‘tooth’ ‘tooth’
‘teeth’ ‘teeth’
‘foot’ ‘foot’
‘feet’ ‘feet’
‘person’ ‘person’
‘people’ ‘people’
Very good guys.
And the last one.
‘mouse’ ‘mouse’
‘mice’ ‘mice’
Excellent, guys.
Let’s now move on to other irregular plural
forms.
Now there are words that have the exact same
singular and plural forms.
They are not common, but you need to know
a few.
Let’s take a look together.
As you can see, ‘sheep’ is the singular
form.
But the plural form is not ‘sheeps’.
It is ‘sheep’.
Same goes for ‘deer’ ‘deer’.
‘moose’ ‘moose’
‘fish’ ‘fish’
‘aircraft’ ‘aircraft’
Ok, so you will say, “I see one sheep.”
But also, “I see two sheep.”
The exact same word.
Ok, let’s go back for pronunciation.
I want you to repeat after me.
‘sheep’ ‘sheep’
‘deer’ ‘deer’
‘moose’ ‘moose’
‘fish’ ‘fish’
‘aircraft’ ‘aircraft’
Good job guys.
Let’s move to other irregular forms.
Some nouns are never singular.
We always use their plural forms.
I have a few common ones for you guys.
Let’s have a look.
‘jeans’
‘pants’
‘glasses’
‘sunglasses’
‘clothes’
‘scissors’
‘pajamas’
So you will say, “I have some jeans.”
Or, “I have scissors.”
But you cannot say, “I have a jean.”
It is incorrect in English.
Let’s work a bit on pronunciation.
Repeat after me, please.
‘jeans’ ‘jeans’
‘pants’ ‘pants’
‘glasses’ ‘glasses’
‘sunglasses’ ‘sunglasses’
‘clothes’ ‘clothes’
‘scissors’ ‘scissors’
And finally,
‘pajamas’ ‘pajamas’
Good guys.
Let’s now look at other irregular plural
forms.
Now, just a few words about nouns in English
that have Latin and Greek origins.
Their plural forms are very weird.
It’s a bit complicated, so we’re not going
to into too much detail.
Don’t worry too much about them.
But just a few words that I think you should
know.
First, we have words ending in ‘a’.
Their plural form will end in ‘ae’.
For example,
‘antenna’ becomes ‘antennae’
‘alumna’ ‘alumnae’
Words ending in ‘us’, us, will end in
‘i’.
‘octopus’ ‘octopi’
‘cactus’ ‘cacti’
Words ending in ‘is’, will end in ‘es’.
‘is’ becomes ‘es’.
For example, ‘analysis’ ‘analyses’
‘diagnosis’ ‘diagnoses’
And finally, words ending in ‘on’, end
in ‘a’.
‘criterion’ ‘criteria’
‘phenomenon’ ‘phenomena’
These plural forms are very difficult, guys.
Even native speakers make a lot of mistakes,
so don’t worry too much about them.
I just wanted to give you a little taste of
Latin and Greek plurals.
Let’s move on to example sentences now.
Ok, guys.
I have a few example sentences for you.
It’s a great opportunity to practice saying
irregular plural forms in English.
Be very careful to use proper pronunciation
as well.
Let’s start.
First, ‘my sister has one child’ ‘my
brother has two children’.
Repeat after me.
‘my sister has one child’ ‘my brother
has two children’.
Next.
‘I’m a quiet person, so I don’t talk
to many people.’
Please repeat after me.
‘I’m a quiet person, so I don’t talk
to many people.’
Good guys.
Next sentence.
‘Did you catch one fish or two fish at the
lake?’
Repeat after me, please.
‘Did you catch one fish or two fish at the
lake?’
Very good.
Next sentence.
‘I have one pair of glasses and two pairs
of sunglasses.’
Repeat after me.
‘I have one pair of glasses and two pairs
of sunglasses.’
Excellent, guys.
And finally,
‘He has one cactus in his front yard, but
many cacti in his back yard.’
Repeat after me.
‘He has one cactus in his front yard, but
many cacti in his back yard.’
Ok, students.
I hope you repeated after me.
And you practiced your pronunciation.
I hope you now have a better understanding
of irregular plural forms in English.
There are many of them.
Not many rules to follow.
A lot of words to memorize.
But, I’m sure with a little bit of practice,
you can do it.
Thank you for watching my video.
Make sure you watch the other videos as well.
Thank you.
Thank you guys for watching my video.
If you’ve liked this video, please, show
me your support.
Click ‘like, subscribe to our channel, put
your comments below, and share the video.
Thank you very much.
See you.
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About this lesson
Learn the most common irregular plural nouns in English and how they differ from regular plural forms.