Year 4 English · Plurals and possession · Summary

Year 4 English Plurals and possession: summary and key words

Part of the Year 4 English plurals and possession chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page

Chapter summary

Skill	Method
Plural	More than one. Most nouns add s (cat, cats). Nouns ending in s, x, ch or sh add es (box, boxes; watch, watches).
y and f endings	Consonant + y: change the y to i, add es (baby, babies). Vowel + y: add s (day, days). f or fe: change to ves (wolf, wolves; knife, knives). A few add only s (chief, chiefs).
o endings	Many add es (potato, potatoes; hero, heroes). Some add s (photo, photos; piano, pianos; zoo, zoos). Learn each one.
Irregular plurals	child, children; man, men; woman, women; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; goose, geese; mouse, mice; ox, oxen; person, people. The same for one and more than one: sheep, deer.
Possession, one owner	Apostrophe and s after the owner: the cat's tail, Mia's coat, the teacher's desk.
Possession, plural owner	Owner ends in s: apostrophe after the s (the foxes' dens). Owner does not end in s: apostrophe and s (the men's voices, the children's drawings).
Plural or possession?	A plural never has an apostrophe (cats). Test a possessive by writing it with of: the tail of the cat.
its, it's, their, they're	Its and their show possession, with no apostrophe. It's means it is; they're means they are. His, hers, ours, yours and theirs have no apostrophe.

I can make the plural of most nouns by adding s, or es after s, x, ch or sh
I can make the plural of nouns that end in y, f, fe or o, and know which ones are exceptions
I can spell the common irregular plurals, such as children, men, teeth and geese
I can add an apostrophe and s to show that one owner has something
I can put the apostrophe after the s when a plural owner ends in s, and add apostrophe and s when it does not
I can tell a plural from a possessive, and I know that a plural never has an apostrophe
I can choose its, their, it's and they're correctly, and I know that its has no apostrophe

singular: one thing, or a word for one thing, such as cat, box or child
plural: more than one, such as cats, boxes or children
irregular plural: a plural that does not follow the usual rule, such as children or teeth
possession: when something belongs to someone or something
owner: the one that has something: in the cat's tail, the owner is the cat
apostrophe: a mark (') used to show an owner, or where letters are left out, such as in don't
possessive pronoun: a word that shows who owns something, such as its, their, his or hers; it has no apostrophe
short form: two words joined into one, with an apostrophe where letters are left out, such as it's or they're