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:

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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