- “Tables thing” : a times tables practice activity
- Verbs : definition and use…
- Verbs : Subject and Object
- Verbs : 1st, 2nd and 3rd person…
- Verbs : Tenses
- Verbs : Irregular Verbs
- Verbs : The Infinitive
- Verbs : The Indicative Mood
- Verbs : The Conditional Mood
- Verbs : The Imperative Mood
- Verbs : The Interrogative Mood
- Verbs : The Subjunctive Mood
- Verbs : Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
- Verbs : Active and Passive
Nouns : Singular & Plural
Nouns : Singular & Plural
There are a number of different rules when it comes to making nouns plural…
A noun that refers to a SINGLE object or person is SINGULAR in number. A noun which refers to MORE THAN one object or person is said to be PLURAL in number. The The plurals of nouns can be formed in a number of different ways.
1. A plural is most often formed by simply adding an ‘s’ at the end of the singular form of the noun:
eg. boy: boys, dog: dogs, tree: trees, etc.
This also works for nouns ending in ‘y’ but only where the letter before the ‘y’ is a vowel.
eg: boy: boys, day: days, turkey: turkeys, tray: trays.
2. If a noun ends in ‘s’,’sh’,’ch’or ‘x’, the plural is formed by adding ‘es’.
Eg: boxes, churches, thrushes, passes, etc.
3. If the noun ends in ‘y’ and the letter before the ‘y’ is a consonant then the plural is formed by changing the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and adding’es’.
eg: berry: berries, cherry: cherries, bunny: bunnies, factory: factories, etc.
4. Sometimes, but not always, nouns that end in ‘f’ make their plurals by changing the ‘f’ to a ‘v’ then adding ‘-es’.
eg: leaf: leaves, loaf: loaves, half: halves, thief: thieves.
What’s the Correct Order for Multiple Adjectives?
When you list several adjectives in a row, there is a specific order in which they need to be written or spoken. Native speakers of English tend to put them in the correct order naturally so if it feels right it probably is right. In any case, it’s unlikely that this will hit a SPAG test any time soon.
I include this information for interest and because many, if not most, people will be unaware of the existence of any formal list of the order in which adjectives should appear when in a list before a noun. It doesn’t always ring true, either; the list says that observations/opinions should come before size but a native speaker might sometimes reverse this if it sounded better:
‘My dog has beautiful, big eyes,’
or
My dog has big, beautiful eyes,’
– you decide…
If you’re learning English, you’ll have to contend with memorising the order and it sometimes sounding awkward to a native speaker. For what it’s worth, here’s the list: Continue reading “What’s the Correct Order for Multiple Adjectives?”
Adjectives Overview
Adjectives: definition and use…
An adjective is a kind of word, its job is to give us more information about a noun.
Adjectives describe nouns by giving information about its size, shape, age, colour, origin or material. In its simplest form an adjective can be found in a simple statement such as:
The soup is hot.
The glass was dirty.
‘Soup’ and ‘glass’ are both nouns; ‘hot’ and ‘dirty’ are the adjectives which describe those nouns, increasing the information that we have about each of them. Within the context of a written passage an adjective will usually be found immediately before a noun.
In the sentence below the nouns are ‘dog’ and ‘street’ The words that give us extra information about these nouns are ‘old and ‘dusty’ these words are adjectives.
The old dog walked down the dusty street.
We can, of course, use more than one adjective to describe a noun; when we do this, the adjectives are separated by commas. The commas go between the adjectives. Note there is no comma between the last adjective in the list and the following noun.
The old, brown dog walked down the dark, dusty street.
Why use adjectives?
Well, if you look at this cynically and clinically, using adjectives moves the standard of a pupil’s written work from Level 2 into the Level 3 camp. However, the use of adjectives also enables the writer to begin to affect the way the reader feels about the characters and events unfolding in the text.
The happy, smiling children watched as the warm sun rose over the green, rolling hills.
… can be placed in apparent danger by simply substituting more evocative, ominous adjectives for the ones in the original sentence. This has the effect of creating tension – perhaps makes the reader wonder what might be about to happen…
The cold, shivering children watched as the feeble sun rose over the dark, ominous hills.
Pupils should be encouraged to use adjectives as the first step towards developing style…
Calculation Balance
Calculation Balance by topmarks.co.uk
An excellent site for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division practice. Good for learning your times tables. Also it is a useful tool for teachers to demonstrate balancing simple equations.
Pupils are offered a number of screens with a pair of scales. In one of the pans is a sum or equation. The pupil’s task is to adjust the value in the other pan to make the scales balance.
Includes activities with number bonds, times tables, division facts, sums as words in a variety of different ranges of numbers – within 10, within 20 and tables/division facts in 2x, 3x,4x, 5x and up to 10×10.
This activity is Flash based and is great for desktop computers and interactive whiteboards but may nor work on some mobile devices and tablets