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Forming a plural with words ending in y


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So I'm going over the rules for changing singular nouns to plural nouns. When I explained that you change the y to I and add -es when the y follows a consonant and just add s when the y follows a vowel, DD had a lightbulb go off and said, "Oh, so when the y acts as a vowel, you change the y to I, and when it acts as a consonant you just need to add s."

 

Is this correct? It sort of makes sense to me.

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At the end of a word, y will always make a vowel sound. Or at least I can't think of any words that end with a consonant y sound. English doesn't like to have more than two vowels together. Example, monkey. If you change the y to I, you would end up with monkeies. Also, when a vowel plus y are at the end, it's really a vowel team, two vowels acting together to make one sound. You can't change just one members of a vowel team.

Edited by kaylk in tx
Typos
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At the end of a word, y will always make a vowel sound. Or at least I can't think of any words that end with a consonant y sound. English doesn't like to have more than two vowels together. Example, monkey. If you change the y to I, you would end up with monkeies. Also, when a vowel plus y are at the end, it's really a vowel team, two vowels acting together to make one sound. You can't change just one members of a vowel team.

 

Good to know. Thanks!

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At the end of a word, y will always make a vowel sound. Or at least I can't think of any words that end with a consonant y sound. English doesn't like to have more than two vowels together. Example, monkey. If you change the y to I, you would end up with monkeies. Also, when a vowel plus y are at the end, it's really a vowel team, two vowels acting together to make one sound. You can't change just one members of a vowel team.

 

:iagree:In words like "key" and "day", y is the second, silent vowel in a digraph indicating the first vowel is long.

 

If a y is acting as a consonant, it will have the "yuh" sound, like "yell", "yes" and "yawn".

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