French Skill:Irregular Plurals

Irregular Plurals
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Language	French
Skills	273
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Irregular Plurals is the sixty-first skill of the French language tree. In this skill, you learn how to form irregular plurals in French (as the name of the skill implies), through a series of three lessons.

Grammar Notes

The vast majority of French words are pluralized with an -s. However, there are a few notable exceptions:

• words ending in -eu, -au, and -eau gain an -x instead of an -s;
• many words ending in -al and many words ending in -ail remove the l (and the -i- if there is one) and add -ux;
• many words ending in -ou gain an -x instead of an -s;
• words that end in -s, -z, or -x do not change at all; and
• the plural of œil is yeux, which is the only highly irregular plural in French.

Side note: words ending in -œuf (including œuf itself) gain an -s like normal, but the "f" becomes silent. The same is true for the word os, which is pronounced aws in singular and o in plural.

Lessons

Lesson 1

• les animaux = animals
• nouveaux = new
• les gâteaux = cakes
• les cadeaux = gifts
• les manteaux = coats
• les chevaux = horses
• les travaux = jobs

Lesson 2

• les journaux = newspapers
• les oiseaux = birds
• les morceaux = pieces
• les bateaux = boats
• les yeux = eyes
• beaux = beautiful/handsome
• les chapeaux = hats

Lesson 3

• les cheveux = hair
• les jeux = games
• les bijoux = jewelry
• les genoux = knees
• vieux = old
• les œufs = eggs (the f becomes silent)

References

Duolingo Lesson: www.duolingo.com/skill/fr/Plural-2