Plurals That Change the Spelling: y to ies, f to ves

Six rows, each with a singular on the left and a plural to finish on the right, make up this 2nd grade plural spelling page. The rule box at the top prints two chips, ies and ves, and two worked models with pictures: cherry to cherries and leaf to leaves, the changed ending in coral. Each row below shows one picture with its word in spaced letters — candy, scarf, calf, bunny, elf, wolf on the sheet shown — and then three small copies of the picture beside the word's stem with a dashed box where the ending goes: cand ___, scar ___, cal ___. The child reads the word for one and writes the ending that makes it the word for many.

This is the one face of the family where the plural is the task rather than a vowel or consonant pattern, and it covers the two changes that trip second graders: y after a consonant becomes ies, and a final f or fe becomes ves. Printing the stem and boxing only the ending keeps the writing to the part that changes, so a child who writes candys or wolfs has made the exact error the rule exists to fix. The three little pictures make the word for many visible without a number being written.

Print it after regular plurals are secure; the Kindergarten and 1st grade singular-and-plural pages handle the ones that just add s. The English version pairs the y and f rules on one sheet, with six words of up to eight letters. One page in portrait with a pencil, and the rule box doubles as the answer key for a parent.