Animals and Our Environment
Primary 3 · English
Animals and Our Environment
Lesson 1 of 3
12 min
Let's begin
On Saturday morning Keza walks with her grandmother down to the field.
A cow is standing quietly near the fence. High up in the avocado tree, a small bird sits on a nest of dry grass. Under a flat stone, brown ants hurry in and out of a tiny hole.
Every animal has a place it calls home. Today you will learn how to say where an animal lives — in good, correct English.
Keza points at the cow and says:
The cow lives in the kraal.
Then she points up at the bird:
The bird lives in a nest.
Each time, Keza is talking about one animal. And each time she uses the word lives, with an s on the end.
Her grandmother points at the whole kraal, where there are four cows:
The cows live in the kraal.
And she points down at the ants:
The ants live under the stone.
Now we are talking about more than one animal — and the s has disappeared. We say live.
It feels upside down, doesn’t it? The one animal gets the s, not the many. That is simply how English works, and now you know it.
Ishimwe wants to write about the hens at his home. There are five hens, and he wants to say where they sleep.
If Ishimwe had only one hen, he would write: One hen lives in the coop. The same sentence — plus one small s.
| Animal | Its home |
|---|---|
| cow | a kraal (the cattle shed) |
| hen | a coop |
| dog | a kennel |
| bird | a nest |
| bee | a hive |
| spider | a web |
| rabbit | a hutch |
| fish | water — a river, or a lake like Lake Kivu |
| lion | the park, in the tall grass |
| gorilla | the forest, up in the mountains |
Did you notice the small word that keeps coming back? It is in. A bird lives in a nest. Fish live in the lake. Gorillas live in the forest.
Tip
The one-s trick
Point at the animal and count it. Only one? Then give the word its s: The cat lives in the house.
More than one? Take the s away: The cats live in the house.
See it? There is only ever one s — either on the animal, or on the word live. Never on both, and never on neither!
Say each answer out loud first, then tap Show answer to check.
Fill the gap: A bee ___ in a hive. (live or lives?)
Answer: lives. There is only one bee, so the word takes an s.
Fill the gap: Many bees ___ in a hive.
Answer: live. Now there is more than one bee, so the s goes away.
Where does a spider live?
Answer: A spider lives in a web. One spider, so we say lives.
One word is wrong here: Two dogs lives in the kennel. Which word is it?
Answer: lives. There are two dogs — more than one — so it must be: Two dogs live in the kennel.
Write one true sentence about fish and Lake Kivu.
Answer (one good way): Fish live in Lake Kivu. Here “fish” means many fish, so we use live, with no s.
What you learned today
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