IXL | Form and use plurals of compound nouns

Complete the sentence with the correct plural.

The restaurant's trivia contest awards twenty-five-dollar gift cards to all of the winners and fifty-percent-off coupons to each of the iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifrunner-up

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Learn with an example

question

Complete the sentence with the correct plural.

In the Federalist Papers, James Madison warned against the formation of iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistanding army which he thought could lead to constant warfare.

key idea

To form the plural of most nouns, add -s.

one tree → two trees

If a noun ends in -s, -ch, -sh, -x, or -z, then add -es to make it plural.

one bush → two bushes

If a noun ends in consonant-y, then drop the y and add -ies to make it plural.

one baby → two babies

If a noun ends in -f or -fe and the /f/ sound changes to /v/ when it's plural, drop the -f or -fe and add -ves to make it plural.

one wolf → two wolves

If a noun ends in -f or -fe and the plural form keeps the /f/ sound, just add -s to make it plural.

one chef → two chefs

If a noun ends in -o, usually add -s to make it plural. However, add -es for the following exceptions: tomato, potato, hero, echo, tornado, volcano, and mango.

one piano → two pianos

one tomato → two tomatoes

To form the plural of a compound noun, like sister-in-law, only pluralize the base word of the noun. The base word in sister-in-law is sister, so the plural form is sisters-in-law.

one district attorney → two district attorneys

one secretary of state → two secretaries of state

solution

The noun standing army is a compound noun. Its base word is army.

The word army ends in consonant-y. So drop the y and add -ies to make it plural. The plural of army is armies.

The plural of the compound noun standing army is standing armies.

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DD.1Form and use plurals: review

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