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Should nouns borrowed from Japanese be pluralized?
I am having a hard time trying to find out the plural form of "sushi". Is it "sushis" or something else?
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3Related: english.stackexchange.com/questions/501/…– InaCommented Oct 24, 2012 at 15:56
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Here in google it speaks about "sushis" (different types of sushi perhaps).– user28919Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 16:11
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I will just note that in Japanese there is no plural form of 寿司 unless you were to confect one using counters (i.e., "pieces of sushi").– RobustoCommented Oct 24, 2012 at 17:56
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@Robusto: It's a very good point about counters, but for the first point it's equally as valid to say that in Japanese there is no singular form of 寿司. Japanese has no singular and no plural. Linguists would say "grammatical number is not marked". But use of counters/classifiers in many languages without marked grammatical number is probably as close a concept as there is and this is often overlooked.– hippietrailCommented Oct 13, 2013 at 10:05
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2 Answers
ODO's definition for sushi categorises it as a mass noun which means that it is considered uncountable. Therefore, the plural of sushi remains sushi.
answered Oct 24, 2012 at 16:07
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1@FrantišekStanko your answer also says that sushi is uncountable. What part do you disagree with?– nohatCommented Oct 24, 2012 at 16:12
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2@nohat: I disagree with the idea that when a word is uncountable, it's automatically both singular and plural. According to that rule, "water" is plural. Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 16:14
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2Sushi is also taken straight from Japanese, which does not have plural forms of words. Even where the noun is countable, the "s" is often omitted, such as is "The Seven Samurai".– DeanCommented Oct 24, 2012 at 18:10
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3Well, I don't think I'd say that the plural of an uncountable noun is the same as the singular, but rather that there is no plural of an uncountable noun. What would it mean to say, "Here are two sushis"? Except as an elision of "two pieces of sushi" or "two kinds of sushi". Just as we don't say, "Here are two waters" (unless we mean "two glasses of water", etc) or "Here are two airs".– JayCommented Oct 24, 2012 at 20:44
Sushi is usually uncountable, but if you need plural, then yes, sushis is correct.
answered Oct 24, 2012 at 15:57
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can we consider "sushi" as both singular and plural forms? Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 15:58
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1No, "sushi' is a singular form, like "water." You usually don't count "waters," like you don't count "sushis." I said usually, because there are exceptions. Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 15:59
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2I don't see that wiktionary has any reference for 'sushis'. Is there a reason to accept this as an authority? @user1187968 normally one would talk about "pieces of sushi" or "plates of sushi" rather than "sushis". I can't even think of a sentence where I'd want to find a plural for the noun "sushi".– InaCommented Oct 24, 2012 at 16:01
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5@Ina "The most popular sushis in the United States are maki and nigiri." But I admit, "types of sushi" reads much better. Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 16:04
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