Unusual Plurals

In most cases to make a word plural (to mean more than one in number) you just have to add an “s” or “es”, there are, however, some exceptions. Here are a few of the most familiar, if you have other favourites please send them in to june@hintsandthings.co.uk

Some words are the same in both singular and plural forms and some have no singular form, these are shown in green.



SINGULAR

PLURAL amoeba amoebae Mark

Daniel amoebas is also acceptable

attorney general

attorneys general Heidi Kroening

bacterium

bacteria bison bison Bob Bartels

brother brethren (this is the archaic plural) brothers Jacob Lawrence cactus cacti Heather

child children Katie Barlow

& daughter coccyx coccyges Jacob

Lawrence coccyxes colon cola or colons Martha Williams corps corps Margarita

Minster cow kine (old fashioned term) Gary Engel

cod cod Margarita

Minster confetto confetti Robert

Bemis criterion

criteria cul-de-sac culs-de-sac Louis Hegedus

datum

data deer deer Bob Bartels

diagnosis

diagnoses die dice elf elves Bob Bartels

fish fish (or fishes) Margarita

Minster Focus Foci Charles Rowan

foot feet Gigi Velazquez

formula formulae Katie Barlow

& daughter forum fora Mark

Daniel forums is also acceptable.

fowl fowl (or fowls) Margarita

Minster gateau gateaux genius geniuses Richard Hill or genii Mark Almand has

kindly pointed out that each version is restricted to a particular

use of the word genius – see



https://www.dictionary.com/browse/genius?s=t goose geese Katie

Barlow & daughter

Robert graffito

graffiti halibut halibut Margarita

Minster hippopotamus

hippopotami Heather More commonly used

hippopotamuses index indicies

Mark Daniel indexes is also acceptable

locus loci Jacob Lawrence louse

lice man men Katie

Barlow & daughter man-of-war men of war Heidi

Kroening means means Margarita

Minster Medium Media Charles

Rowan mongoose mongooses moose moose Margarita

Minster mouse

Computer mouse mice mice or mouses Jacob Lawrence mythos mythoi octopus octopuses *** Richard

Hill octopodes Jacob Lawrence offspring offspring Margarita

Minster ox oxen Peter

Inchley paparazzo

paparrazzi

Mark

Daniel perch perch (or perches) Margarita

Minster person people Katie Barlow

& daughter phenomenon

phenomena

pike pike (when referring to fish) Margarita

Minster plateau plateaux pliers pliers Kevin

Lee polyhedron polyhedra Heidi

Kroening polyhedrons* * alternative form

quantum quanta radius radii Jeremy

Symons salmon salmon (or salmons) Margarita

Minster scissors scissors Margarita

Minster series series Margarita

Minster sheep sheep Margarita

Minster sister sistren (archaic form) sisters Jacob Lawrence spaghetto spaghetti Jacob Lawrence species species Margarita

Minster stadium stadia Mark

Daniel stadiums is acceptable

stratum

strata syllabus syllabi or syllabuses Jacob Lawrence tongs tongs Kevin

Lee tooth

teeth Katie Barlow

& daughter trout trout (or trouts) Margarita

Minster tuna

tuna (or tunas) Margarita

Minster tweezers tweezers Kevin

Lee vertebra

vertebrae

Mark Daniel woman women *

*** Katie Barlow

& daughter

* Mr. Tim

Lynch also points out this is the only English plural where the first

syllable sounds different in addition to the changed ending. ***

Alec Rivers has

pointed out – “ It

is stated that ‘women’ is the only plural that changes pronunciation on

the first syllable: how about brother – brethren, and child – children?” ************************** I have recently been asked if the word

“music” can be used in the plural form as “musics” –

my immediate response was “no”, but having done some research it

would appear this term is now widely used. If anyone can throw any

light on this particular subject I would be delighted to hear from you. Bree Guerra

comments as follows:- Just to let you know, in an academic (musicological) setting, the plural word “musics” works the same way as the plural form “peoples”– it refers to a group of distinct musical practices or styles. Mel Martin

makes the following observation:-

“Music” is a collective… you wouldn’t use a number with it.

Another query I have had is regarding the plural

form of the word “ginseng” – here again I found confusion.

Ginseng appears to be a species of plant and also a term given to the root

of the plant. Presumably when referring to several roots it would be

termed “ginsengs” – unless anyone knows differently! Help from English graduates etc.

would be more than welcome. Stephen Q. Muth

writes – Although one might argue they are always plural, or qualified

by another noun (pair of vs. pairs of) to make the distinction, as a

stand-alone word, it can be referent to singular or plural things. E.g.,

guy across the room says “pass me those pants on the table” — without

actually being there, it is not clear if there’s one or two (or more)

pairs on the table. Or this example: (man comes into room wearing

outlandish pair of sequined Elvis-style trousers, turns to you,

immediately brightens and says “Nice pants, eh?” It’s pretty obvious that he’s talking about one

pair of pants UNLESS you happened to be in a room with piles of

outlandish kinds of pants on top of tables all over the place. Now,

we’re in a quandary… is he merely making a remark about the absurdity

of being in a roomful of outlandish trousers? Or perhaps making a point

about how much better the one pair he’s wearing is than the ones in the

rest of the room? Or simply remarking on the pair he’s got on? Ah… I just thought of another one. Trousers and trousers



Now for something a bit different;

I received the following interesting information from Aaron

B Lingwood, a student of Japanese, which I thought would be of interest

to others –

I am not a student of English but a student of Japanese.

I have seen the plural of Ninja written the following ways:

Ninja

Ninjas

Ninjii

Ninji

Ninjaed

I believe the correct plural of Ninja is

Shinobi.

Plurals don’t exist in the Japanese language.

In Ancient Japanese, some word forms were created to convey Singularity.

Ninja was derived as the singular of Shinobi in the following way:

In Ancient Japanese, characters have 2 strict readings: the ‘on’ and the ‘kun’ readings.

‘Kun’ reading are those derived from the Chinese pronunciation of the character.

The character for Shinobi ( 忍 ) was pronounced as its’ ‘kun’ reading.

The ‘on’ reading for this character

is NIN with JA being derived from SHA ( 者 )

SHA being the ‘on’ character for thing or item.

As no ownership is implied, the term NINJA conveys a single

shinobi.