Error Spotting part 13

Rule 1

A noun, usually forms its plural by adding ‘-s’ at the end.
E.g. dog – dogs, pigeon – pigeons

Rule 2

Most nouns ending in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ change into ‘-ves’.
E.g. leaf – leaves, knife – knives
Exceptions: staffs, cliffs, chiefs, roofs, safes

Rule 3

Nouns ending in ‘y’ add ‘s’ if the ‘y’ follows a vowel.
E.g. toy – toys, ray – rays

Rule 4

Nouns ending in ‘y’ change the ‘y’ to ‘-ies’ if the ‘y’ follows a consonant.
E.g. baby – babies, story – stories

Rule 5

Most nouns ending in ‘o’ form their plurals by adding ‘-es’.
E.g. tornado – tornadoes, echo – echoes
Exceptions: pianos, solos, bamboos

Rule 6

Nouns ending in ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘x’, or ‘z’ add ‘es’ to form plurals.
E.g. gas – gases, grass – grasses, branch – branches

Rule 7

– When the sound is ee and alphabets used are ‘i’and ‘e’:

1) ‘e’ comes first, when they come after ‘c’
E.g. deceive, receive

2) ‘i’ comes first in all other cases
E.g. pie, grief

Exceptions: seize, weird

Rule 8

– When the words ‘all’ and ‘full’ are used to make up longer words, one ‘l’ is dropped.

E.g. always, cheerful

Rule 9

– When adding ‘dis’ and ‘mis’ to other words, the ‘s’ is always kept, even if the other word begins with an ‘s’.

E.g. Misspell

Exercises

1. Find the misspelt word – skilfull, alright, piece
2. Which is the correct plural form of chief – chieves, chiefs, chief, chiefs
3. Choose the correctly spelt word – addresses, addressess, addreses
4. Find the misspelt word – misstate, mistake, misuse, misspend

Here are the explanations!

1. Skilfull – According to rule 8, when the words ‘all’ and ‘full’ are used to make up longer words, one ‘l’ is dropped. Skilful is the correct spelling.
2. Chiefs – Although most nouns ending in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ change ‘f’ or ‘fe’ to ‘ves’, there are certain exceptions to this rule (refer rule 2)
3. Addresses – Nouns ending in ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘x’, or ‘z’ add ‘es’ to form plurals.
4. Mistate – When adding ‘dis’ and ‘mis’ to other words, the ‘s’ is always kept, even if the other word begins with an ‘s’. Misstate is the correct spelling.