The Elementary Spelling Book, being an Improvement on the American Spelling Book · No. 150 · Part 11: Rules for spelling, numbers and marks
129. Rules for plurals: dresses, flies, valleys
Goal: Your child makes plurals with s, es and ies, and changes y to i when needed.
You'll need
- The book, open to this table
- A slate, small whiteboard, or paper and pencil
What's in the book
Rules 11 to 15: verbs in y (cry, crier, cried), verbs in ie (die, dying; lie, lying), plurals that add s (slab, slabs; lad, lads; bag, bags; back, backs), nouns in e (bride, brides; grace, graces; pledge, pledges), nouns in ch, sh, ss and x that add es (church, churches; bush, bushes; dress, dresses; fox, foxes), and nouns in y after a consonant that change to ies (fly, flies; duty, duties; glory, glories; berry, berries).
The lesson, step by step
Review
Your child writes carried, carrying, followed.
ie to y
Read the short rule for die and lie: before -ing, ie becomes y. die, dying; lie, lying.
Plain s
Most nouns just add s: lad, lads; bag, bags. Back in No. 43 you heard that this s often sounds like z. Words ending in e add s too, and sometimes that makes a new syllable: grace, graces; pledge, pledges.
es and ies
Nouns ending in ch, sh, ss or x add es: church, churches; bush, bushes; dress, dresses; fox, foxes. Nouns ending in a consonant and y change y to ies: fly, flies; berry, berries.
Read the table aloud
Read the singular and plural lists together. Some of them:
slab, slabs
church, churches
dress, dresses
fly, flies
duty, duties
Dictation
Say a singular; your child writes the plural: box, glass, peach, baby, city, cherry, bag, cake.