What does plural mean?
Word: Plural
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Plural means the form of a word that shows more than one, such as books or children.
Word origin: From Latin pluralis, from plus, more.
How do you spell plural?
Syllables: plu - ral
Tricky part: It ends in al, not el or ol.
Watch out for: plurel, plurol, plooral
Memory tip: A plural is about all of them, and plural ends in al, the start of all.
Plural in a sentence
Example 1: Does the word news take a plural verb? No: we say the news is good.
Example 2: Our teacher asked us to write the plural of every word in the list.
Example 3: Some words, such as scissors, are always used in the plural.
Fun Fact
A few English nouns look exactly the same whether they mean one or more than one, such as sheep, deer and aircraft.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word plural as it is used in the sentence:
Always use a plural verb such as are when the subject is we or they.
a) double
b) multiple
c) several
d) singular
Show answer
d) singular. Singular means one, while plural means more than one.
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly and one is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. plural 2. consonant 3. punctuation 4. abreviation
a) marks such as commas and full stops used in writing
b) the form of a word that shows more than one
c) a short form of a word or phrase
d) a letter of the alphabet that is not a vowel
Show answer
c) a short form of a word or phrase. Abbreviation starts abb, with a double b; abreviation has dropped one.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Our teacher reminded us that geese is the irregular lulpar of goose.
a) plural
b) ruler
c) pluck
d) pupil
Show answer
a) plural. Ruler needs an e, pupil a second p and an i, and pluck a c and a k; plural uses exactly these six letters.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
plurral
a) a
b) l
c) r
d) u
Show answer
c) r. Plural has one r, between the u and the a.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these words is in the plural?
a) teeth
b) mouse
c) tooth
d) child
Show answer
a) teeth
2. What is the plural of the word leaf?
a) leavees
b) leaves
c) leavs
d) leafes
Show answer
b) leaves
