The Spelling Rules for Adding Suffixes:
What happens to words ending in -f?

To make most words plural you normally just add s or es:

car > cars

train > trains

bus > buses

coach > coaches

As you saw on page 12, some words ending in y need to change:

baby > babies

puppy > puppies

story > stories

Some words ending in f must change to ve before the s:

Singular	Plural
calf	calves
half	halves
leaf	leaves
loaf	loaves
knife	knives
life	lives
sheaf	sheaves
shelf	shelves
thief	thieves
wife	wives
wolf	wolves
yourself	yourselves

Not all words ending in -f follow this rule. Some stay the same:

chiefs

beliefs

roofs

proofs

...and all words ending in -ff stay the same:

cliffs

muffs

tiffs

skiffs

And a few words can be spelled both ways (English is a strange language! ) :

Singular	Plural
dwarf	dwarfs or dwarves
hoof	hoofs or hooves
scarf	scarfs or scarves
wharf	wharfs or wharves
handkerchief	handkerchiefs or handkerchieves

Fill the gaps in these sentences by using a word that always changes to -ves:

Find the best -ves word	Type the word here
I baked six ______ yesterday.
Fishermen's ______ need to be very sharp.
We could hear the ______ howling.
All my disks were taken by the ______.
Both ______ of the game were exciting.
The ______ are turning red and brown.
King Henry VIII had six ______.
We need four new ______ for the books.
The ______ of refugees can be hard.
Young elephants are called ______.

Skip this exercise and go to the next part of this unit: A final check on all the suffix rules. *

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Unit 9: Adding suffixes: the spelling rules

Page 16 of 19

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