Spelling Rules for Making Words Plural

by Marie Rippel

When making words plural, why do you add S to some words but ES to others? And when a word ends with Y, how do you know whether to change the Y to I before adding the plural suffix? And why on earth does the word knife become knives?

You can unravel these mysteries with six scoops of ice cream. Just click the play button below for a yummy treat, and then read on for free printable spelling rule posters and sample lessons!

Ready to Dig In?

Whether you prefer your ice cream in dishes or in cones or with one cherry or two cherries, these tasty guidelines will help you spell plurals correctly every time.

Spelling Rule for Making Words Plural poster

Tips and tricks like these are taught throughout the All About Spelling program. Want to see more? Download these free resources to see just how easy teaching spelling rules can be.

download graphic for AAS Level 1 Lesson 22

Download All About Spelling Level 1, Lessons 22 and 23.

These lessons from All About Spelling Level 1 shows how we teach kids to make words plural by adding either S or ES.

download graphic for AAS Level 1 Lesson 16

Download All About Spelling Level 5, Step 17.

In this lesson from All About Spelling Level 5, you can see how we teach kids to pluralize words that end in F and FE.

Download our free Spelling Rules Posters.

This handy resource will help make learning three important spelling rules fun and easy to remember for your children.

Do you think these guidelines for making words plural will improve your child’s spelling? Let me know in the comments below! And check out our other spelling rules, too!

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Gerda Theron

says:

January 10, 2023 at 8:58 am

This is a great help for parents.
Thanks

Robin

says: Customer Service

January 10, 2023 at 11:08 am

You’re welcome, Gerda! I glad this is a help for you.

January 10, 2023 at 8:51 am

These are so much help for parents who are struggling with reading and writing English.
Thank you!

Kelly

October 25, 2022 at 10:11 pm

Thank you, for sharing resources.

Robin E.

October 26, 2022 at 6:47 am

You’re welcome, Kelly.

Robert

June 8, 2021 at 5:56 pm

I would like to know when spelling bible whether it is le or el?

June 9, 2021 at 2:37 pm

Robert,
There is no rule for using LE or EL to spell the /ul/ syllable at the end of the word. The make matters worse, the /ul syllable can also be spelled IL or AL as well.

I can tell you that the IL spelling (as in pencil, stencil, basil) is the least common spelling. EL (as in cancel, travel, cruel) is the next in commonness, then AL (focal, local, traditional), and LE is the most common (Bible, pickle, article). One other tip is that most of the time AL is used when the word is an adjective.

So, with that in mind, it is best for students to become very familiar with IL words and EL words, as they have to be learned visually. Students need to know which just looks correct. Otherwise, ask themselves if the word is an adjective or has a base word as AL is a suffix added to words to make them adjectives. Otherwise, students need to know that LE is the most common spelling of this syllable and use it most often.

We recommend when teaching these to spend a lot of time with each one before introducing the next one, including reading a lot of words in addition to spelling them to build up visual memory for how they look.

I hope this helps some.

Ronald Dahl

May 4, 2021 at 11:24 pm

Can you get this in a book form
If so what is the name of it I think it helped me out too

May 8, 2021 at 3:00 pm

Yes, Ronald. It is All About Spelling and it can be purchased through our website, All About Learning Press.

Carole McDonald

February 26, 2021 at 2:22 pm

We really like the ice cream poster.

hayden

February 25, 2021 at 11:52 am

icecrema is my faoivrit

Cheree

February 23, 2021 at 7:50 am

This is awesome info and I found it just in time! I am starting to work thru rules and guidelines of spelling plurals with my daughter ?

February 24, 2021 at 2:37 pm

I’m glad this was just in time to be helpful for you, Cheree! ?

Elizabeth Black

February 21, 2021 at 7:10 pm

I absolutely love this bright Ana’s beautiful posters- they are so crispy and clear my kiddos love them, and like that they are not “too busy’). ELizabeth

February 22, 2021 at 5:32 pm

Thank you, Elizabeth! I’m glad you like the posters.