Singular / Plural Nouns

Singular / Plural Nouns
Daily Grammar Sentences

Instructions:  Give the student the sentences in the second column (Sentences to be Corrected).  Students write corrected sentences and turn them in to the teacher to be checked.

Theme: Shopping	Sentences to be Corrected	Corrected Sentences
Monday	I buy a hats. I doesn’t buy two hat. Does the mans buy some new clothes?	I buy a hat. I do not buy two hats. Do the men buy some new clothes?
Tuesday	We see dog at the pet store. Do your Dad buy a dogs? The childs no go shopping alone.	We see a dog at the pet store. Does your dad buy a dog? The children don’t go shopping alone.
Wednesday	Does we buy new crayon? The stationary store sells some marker. I no gets a new pencils today.	Do we buy a new crayon? The stationary store sells some markers. I do not get a new pencil today.
Thursday	My brothers no gets new toy today. Maria, gets you a toys? My brother buy trading card.	My brothers do not get a new toy today. Maria, do you get a toy? My brother buys a trading card.
Friday	Buy you a shirts in the mall? Mom no buy snack at the grocery store. I gets a snacks at the gas station.	Do you buy a shirt in the mall? Mom does not buy a snack at the grocery store. I get a snack at the gas station.

Assessment can be made on three levels in Daily Grammar Sentences:

1. Did the student recognize the mistake?
2. Can they fix it?
3. Can they produce a sentence using that grammar point in free speech?

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Activity

What would you like?

Type of Activity:  Partner
Materials Needed:  vocabulary cards of nouns for reference, paper, pencil
Directions for student:
Do a role play with a partner.  Pretend you are at a store.  Your partner works at the store.  You need help finding things.  Finish this conversation:

You:  I would like a cup

Partner:  We don’t have any cups, but we do have some         .

You:  I don’t want any but I would like a .

Partner:  We don’t have any but …

Keep it going!  How many different things can you come up with?  They can be silly.  When you are done, your last line should be:

You:  I wouldn’t like a          , but I would like a cup!

Then, your conversation could start all over again!

Next, write down all of your sentences.  You can do this by yourself or with your partner.  Have your teachers make two copies of this script.  Practice with your partner and perform this show in front of the class.

Assessment: Through teacher observation and written work, based on the quality of sentences produced.

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Grammar Explanation  
This is another category that is deceptively simple to native speakers of English.  However, the plural system (like past tenses for verbs) is very closely related to the historical evolution of the language and therefore appears somewhat arbitrary.
The first thing to remember is that the plural -s has three pronunciations:
 

hat - hats	/s/ - voiceless s - when the final sound of the singular is also voiceless
pen - pens	/z/ - voiced s - when the final sound of the singular is voiced
watch - watches	/iz/ - short i plus voiced s - when the final sound is an explosive fricative (ch, x, sh, j, etc.)

There are also the irregulars, many of which are very common in daily language:

man - men
tooth - teeth
foot - feet

Some English nouns are considered “uncountable” so you cannot have more than one. (How can you have one water?  One air?  One grass?)  We refer to these nouns as a collective group but we do not put an s on the end:

I see some water and some grass not I see some waters.

We can manipulate these nouns and make them countable by adding a better descriptor:
A glass of water, a breath of air, a blade of grass

We did not include uncountable nouns in this section but your students may ask about this.  See the vocabulary section of this curriculum for more information.