THIS PAPER PRESENTS FIRST A SUMMARY OF RESEARCH INVESTIGATING THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE KINDERGARTEN CHILD HAS ABSTRACTED IMPLICIT REGULARITIES IN THE FORMATION OF PLURALS IN ENGLISH. PRODUCTION AND RECOGNITION TASKS WERE USED. THE CHILDREN MADE MORE ERRORS WITH SYLLABLES REQUIRING THE ADDITION OR DELETION OF THE /IZ/ ALLOMORPH THAN WITH SYLLABLES REQUIRING EITHER /S/ OR /Z/. (SEE RELATED DOCUMENT ED 011 653.) A DISCUSSION OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF THESE FINDINGS FOR READING FOLLOWS. THE AUTHOR SUGGESTS THAT (1) READING AND WRITING, ALTHOUGH THEY SHARE SOME COMMON PROCESSES, ARE NOT "THE SAME THING IN REVERSE," (2) THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE TOTALITY OF LANGUAGE IS PERHAPS NOWHERE AS OBVIOUS AS IN READING, AND (3) READING IS A HIERARCHICAL PROCESS OF ELIMINATION OF UNCERTAINTY. THE READER SHOULD EXAMINE FIRST THE LETTERS RICHEST IN INFORMATION--THOSE CAPABLE OF ELIMINATING THE LARGEST NUMBER OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES--AND USE THE LOW INFORMATION LETTERS FOR DECIDING AMONG THE REMAINING ALTERNATIVES. CONSONANTS HAVE MORE REGULAR SOUND VALUES THAN VOWELS AND ARE THEREFORE MORE DEPENDABLE CLUES TO READING. (DO)