My child is working on plural nouns but having a difficulty time with nouns ending in f or fe. This is in the information that he was sent home. To form the plural of some nouns ending in f or fe, change the f to v and add es. For other nouns ending in fe of fe add s. There are otherrules for plurals that my child can apply. But, is there a rule for this one. It seems like a guessing game and that is what he is doing.
Thank you.
Re: Grammar question
If your oral language is OK, say the word and say the plural (one giraffe - two giraffes; one knife - two knives). As long as it’s a word you’re familair with, you should guess right most of the time.
If oral language is a problem, the only thing to do is to make a list of all the f ending words you can find, divide into f and v plurals, and memorize orally by repetition. (Paper repetition as in spelling books does zip)
Re: Grammar question
Having been an English teacher for many years, this one always “bugs” me. There is no real rule—it’ s simply memorization .
I know of what you speak: On the one hand we have half—halves. On the other hand, we have giraffe/giraffes or sherrif/sherrifs.
I don’t teach that rule because it doesn’t seem a productive proposition. Haven’t done a word search on frequency, but just know there are a lot (don’t know when & why) of words that don’t change to -ves.
Maybe others have ideas…