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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Plurals Okay, another request. Plurals! How do we pluralise words? We add and 's'. That's all, right? I wish. This is going to get technical, and those who hate grammar rules are going to hate this blog entry, but I am a grammar nerd, and this is the way things are... technically. I know many ignore them, and that is their choice, but I like to stick up for English as she is. So, most words, yes, add an 's' to make a plural. dog -> dogs planet -> planets However, if a word ends in -s, add an '-es' boss -> bosses biceps -> bicepses (yes, biceps is the singular, because of the Greek basis) If a word ends in -y after a consonant, drop the -y and add '-ies'. butterfly -> flies sky -> skies If a word ends in a vowel, then a 'y', just add -s. However, in US English, if a word ends in -ey, drop the -ey and add '-ies'. honey -> honies money -> monies Remember, In the UK, Australia and other places that use that form of English, it would be: honey -> honeys money -> moneys If a word has two or more syllables, ends in -us and is from a Latin base, drop the -us and add '-i'. cactus -> cacti hippopotamus -> hippopotami Oh, quickly, virus technically has virus as the plural because it is fourth declension, not second... but that's a Latin thing. Just remember viruses is allowed, but virus can be its own plural. Latin originated words that end in -is, drop the -is and add '-es'. crisis -> crises metamorphosis -> metamorphoses Technically, the plural of Elvis would be Elves (pronounce the second "e" - el-vays - or else it's the plural of 'elf'). Latin words that are singular and end in an -a, add an '-e'. formula -> formulae stela -> stelae Bus is an interesting one. It is an abbreviation of the Latin word "omnibus" which means "for everything/for all" and, as such, is already declined into a plural state (the singular is 'omnis'), so adding '-es' is all we can do. bus -> buses Back to things that are their own plural, 'sheep' is its own plural, 'fish' is its own plural when speaking generically or about one single sort of fish, but fishes is allowed when referencing all manner of fish. 'Species' is its own plural; there is no 'specie'. Same with 'series'. Back to the -us ending. If the word is taken from Greek, as opposed to Latin, drop the -us and add '-odes'. octopus -> octopodes platypus -> platypodes However, in these cases, just adding '-es' is also acceptable (e.g. octopuses, platypuses). If a word ends in -o, add '-es'. potato -> potatoes tomato -> tomatoes The exceptions are if the word comes directly from Italian piano -> pianos cello -> cellos If a word ends in -f or has an -f near the end, replace the -f with a -v calf -> calves knife -> knives life -> knives The exceptions are if the -f comes after two vowels proof -> proofs reef -> reefs Then there's the weird ones: goose -> geese mouse -> mice man/woman -> men/women foot -> feet tooth -> teeth louse -> lice ox -> oxen child -> children person -> people crux -> cruces Now, false singulars: Phenomena is the plural; the singular is phenomenon. Data is the plural; the singular is datum. Bacteria is the plural; the singular is bacterium. Dice is the plural; the singular is die. And I've probably forgotten or missed some, but that is the general way plurals work. |
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