Questions tagged [irregular-plurals]
For questions about words which have an irregular plural form.
107
questions
0
votes
2
answers
66
views
Fishes and Deers
I saw a video clip with the concept of a plural of plurals. Here is an example:
In the ocean there are many fish.
I saw 3 different kinds of fishes.
First, is this correct usage?
If so, could I ...
- 113
1
vote
2
answers
63
views
Can I pluralize compound proper nouns, like "Aunts Jane" for two aunts with the same name?
If I have an aunt named Jane, then I would write "Aunt Jane," where "Aunt" is capitalized because it is part of a proper noun.
If I have two aunts that are named Jane, would I ...
0
votes
0
answers
45
views
What are the plural equivalents of Messrs for Ms, Miss & Mrs? [duplicate]
Mr. smith and Mr. Jones can be expressed as Messrs. Smith and Jones.
How can Ms. Smith and Ms. Jones, or Miss Smith and Miss Jones, or Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones respectively be so consolidated?
- 439
27
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How did "oxen" (plural of "ox") survive as the only plural form with the Old English plural ending -en?
Oxen is a rare exception in English where it is the only common English word that retains the original Old English plural ending -en. (Note: Children and brethren are formed a bit differently, please ...
- 62.6k
1
vote
0
answers
41
views
What’s special about the word “fish” [duplicate]
When there are two or more carps, you can say “there are fish”, treating singular form of fish without plural suffix “s” as a plural, but I think normally it doesn’t apply to other nouns, is that ...
- 19
0
votes
3
answers
158
views
Can a stables (for horses) be used as a singular noun?
A "stable" is the compartment where an individual horse is housed.
A "stables" is the building which contains multiple stables/horses.
So the stables is a singular building, but ...
- 109
2
votes
2
answers
286
views
“And to the many of you, William.”
I was taken aback by this phrase directed at me in response to my “Merry Christmas”.
And to the many of you, William.
Is it in any way correct?
Perhaps it is Old English, or a quote from a period ...
0
votes
2
answers
140
views
Is it "three types of fish" or "three types of fishes"?
I have learnt that the plural of fish is still fish.
However, if we refer to different types of fish, we can use fishes; for example:
The aquarium has three fishes: goldfish, carp, and guppy.
If ...
1
vote
0
answers
51
views
Why use 'has' when the word before it is plural noun? [closed]
I have an English book, in which there is a sentence that confuses me.
The sentence is
In the past years, the business of clothes has grown well.
I'm confused because why the author use the word '...
9
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Why is “one hundreds” in plural form on this stack of hundred dollar bills?
To me, two hundreds of books or one hundred of books is natural.
Why is “one hundreds” in the picture in plural form?
- 2,678
0
votes
3
answers
174
views
Plural of "Director and Vice President"
There is a position in a company, "Director and Vice President".
If two people are in this position, are they:
Director and Vice Presidents
or
Directors and Vice Presidents?
5
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Is the phrase "source code" intrinsically plural? [closed]
If we're talking about the phrase "source code", isn't that naturally and implicitly plural?
Consider the following sentence:
All of the source code for this project is in a public GitHub ...
- 193
6
votes
2
answers
926
views
Number of undos? One undo - Many undos?
I'm creating an Andriod app/game. There you do moves and I'm counting the number of moves that's done. Then it is also possible to undo one or many moves.
What would you call it when counting the ...
- 550
3
votes
2
answers
109
views
What do you call this example (I'd describe it as an "implied singular")? [duplicate]
Take this sentence I found:
"Too many services enabled on the firewall and switches leave an organization susceptible to compromised security."
I think "leaves" is appropriate ...
- 39
0
votes
0
answers
25
views
Data don't lie or Data doesn't lie? [duplicate]
Which form is more appropriate and why?
Data don't lie
or
Data doesn't lie
- 101
-1
votes
1
answer
40
views
How to use is and are in a sentence [closed]
Which of the following is correct:
The price to pay for these favors is souls
The price to pay for these favors are souls
- 3
0
votes
0
answers
64
views
Pluralization of Latin origin words
I heard that words borrowed from Latin take irregular plural form. (examples: datum/data, fungus/fungi, alga/algae)
But how can we tell that whether a word (such as 'bus', 'plum', or 'idea') has Latin ...
- 81
1
vote
0
answers
49
views
What's right way to talk about garlands? [closed]
'Tis the season, and garlands are cropping up in discussions. As you notice in that sentence, I pluralized the word "garland". If I were referring to a single instance, such as one strand ...
- 119
0
votes
1
answer
100
views
What is the plural form of German 'Sturm und Drang'?
Yesterday I encountered the artistic term 'Sturm und Drang' (roughly: storm and stress), a term that describes the literary and artistic movement influenced by Rousseau. It has also been co-opted in ...
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Do "elision" and "ratatouille" have unmarked plural forms?
According to Microsoft® Encarta® 2009, the word elision has an unmarked plural elision (no -s suffix) as an alternative to elisions.
Can "elision" be used as a plural form? If so, is it due ...
- 2,433
-1
votes
1
answer
79
views
Multiple units of a singular shelf... If I refer to the group of units, should I use "shelfs" or "shelves" [closed]
I have multiple packages with a single shelf inside.
If I refer to the multiple packages using some form or variation of "shelf" instead of "packages", should I use "shelfs&...
- 1
1
vote
0
answers
169
views
What is the correct plural of Lord/Lady justice? [closed]
Members of the Court of Appeal of England & Wales, and the Court of Appeal for Northern Ireland are styled Lord (or Lady) Justice.
What is the correct plural? In American and Canadian English, one ...
1
vote
0
answers
40
views
The Miss(es) Joneses
Fowler reads
The Misses Jones is the old-fashioned plural, occasionally used when
formality is required, e.g. in printed lists of guests present, etc.;
otherwise the type the Miss Joneses is now ...
- 2,433
3
votes
0
answers
162
views
In Scottish English are all plurals after an "s" sound pronounced as "-seez"?
In English I'm accustomed to the incorrect irregular plural pronunciation used by many educated speakers for the words "processes" and "biases" to end in /siːz/ instead of /səz/ ...
- 7,621
0
votes
1
answer
78
views
Extremely fast shipping time
Which sentence is grammatically correct:
"We can provide extremely fast shipping times"
"We can provide extremely fast shipping time"
I was arguing the first was correct because ...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
50
views
Analogue to appending "s" to the end of an acronym when plural does not have an "s" [duplicate]
Some acronyms can be naturally pluralized. For example, consider the acronym RTP which stands for regional tax policy -- the plural is regional tax policies and thus the acronym can be written as RTPs....
- 109
-1
votes
1
answer
53
views
If one presidential term is four years, how do you say two terms in terms of years? Two four years's?
If one presidential term is four years, how do you say two terms in terms of years? Two four years's? Two four years doesn't make a lot of sense but two four years's sounds weird.
2
votes
2
answers
187
views
How to suggest plurality of a generic word?
There is a basket of oranges kept in the middle of the room. A child comes in and kicks it. I want to describe the action but want to use the generic "fruit(s)" in the sentence. It does not ...
- 1,444
6
votes
1
answer
324
views
Plural of "beef Wellington"
A colleague asked: what is the plural of "beef Wellington"? (In response to a few comments, I recognise that I am unlikely to be misunderstood in a restaurant no matter how I order ...
- 399
1
vote
1
answer
62
views
One troop full of troops? [closed]
A troop is a group of soldiers but when they say 32,000 troops they mean 32,000 soldiers, not 32,000 groups of soldiers. But one soldier is never referred to as one troop. What's up with that?
- 129
0
votes
1
answer
164
views
few/little/some software (in plural) [duplicate]
I would like to say:
Available calculation methods are limited to few software. With "few", I mean 3 programs. However, "software" is an uncountable noun. "Some" and &...
- 269
0
votes
1
answer
31
views
Objectives for Plural Subjects
Please have a look at the following example.
The shops on the high street see a customer drop.
The shops on the high street see customer drops.
Which one is grammatically correct?
Thanks.
- 113
1
vote
1
answer
204
views
Why did "species" take over the singular?
As far as I know, it is very rare to have a noun in English that is both singular and plural and ends with "s". But "species" is such a noun, and I was surprised to learn that it ...
- 2,121
0
votes
0
answers
30
views
Pluralization of "XX Second Delay"
There is an app that I recently used that had music playback functionality. Among other things, one of the features it provided was that I was able to adjust the speed of the lyrics using two buttons. ...
- 229
8
votes
4
answers
2k
views
English plural of "conundrum"
A Physics.SE question had me reading up on D-branes on Wikipedia, where I found the following sentence in the section on black holes:
The concept of black hole entropy poses some interesting conundra....
- 444
0
votes
1
answer
154
views
How to add a possessive to a plural that doesn't follow the "add s" rule?
Let us say that I want to talk about the houses that are collectively owned by a set of mice. The phrase "the mice houses" doesn't make sense to me, but "the mice's houses" also ...
0
votes
0
answers
22
views
Plural or singular subject-verb agreement [duplicate]
My question is in regards to the sentence below:
Take advantage of free editing tools like Grammarly, which helps pinpoint small typos, or Hemmingway App, which shows you how to increase readability.
...
0
votes
1
answer
257
views
Can I use shoes as a collective noun as singular?
The only thing I can wear is my shoes.
Can I use shoes as a collective noun in singular, as in the example?
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Why isn't "giraves" the plural of "giraffe" like "wolves" is for "wolf"? [duplicate]
The plural of giraffe, according to Merriam Webster and some other dictionaries I checked, is "giraffes".
Normally when the final sound of an English word is F, its plural ends in V sound. ...
user387044
0
votes
2
answers
395
views
Can the word "fruit" be used as an invariant plural as in "the fruit are" and "two fruit"? [duplicate]
Background:
Over here on this forum for English speakers learning Chinese, there is debate on which ones among the following are correct English:
the fruit is
the fruits are
the fruit are *?
Other ...
- 7,621
3
votes
1
answer
569
views
Why is "learnings" considered acceptable? [closed]
In 2020, within Australia, the term "learnings" has become very in-vogue within the media and political set.
But why is the noun learnings considered acceptable English, at all?
'Learnings ...
- 41
0
votes
0
answers
23
views
The military uses robots? Or the military use robots?
Some comments: I use robots. You use robots. The people use robots. Everybody uses robots. The school uses robots, but schools use robots. So perhaps the military uses robots. I saw a previous thread ...
1
vote
2
answers
381
views
Is there a term for a compound word such as Sergeant Major, which plural form doesn't modify the last word?
Born out of a lighthearted comment I made earlier today, stating that the plural form of Mini Cooper would be Minis Cooper, I've been curious if there is a specific name for this type of plural. My ...
- 111
-1
votes
2
answers
418
views
English nouns whose plural form differs from singular
The singular of people is person. For example, if there are three people in a room, you would refer to one of them as a person. There other English nouns of this type, e.g. cattle vs cow/bull. Is ...
0
votes
0
answers
104
views
"Series" – a noun of multitude similar to "lot", "majority", "percentage", "proportion"– verb agreement
According to Garner's fourth edition
Though serving as a plural when the need arises, series is ordinarily
a singular noun. But it is also a noun of
multitude, so that phrases such as a series of ...
- 2,433
1
vote
2
answers
46k
views
Is it "men's" or "mens'"? And what's the rule? [duplicate]
Why is it that men's eyes always drift toward females?
I mean, "men" is the plural form of "man". So it's "mens'"... but it looks very strange, and maybe this only ...
- 11
-1
votes
2
answers
72
views
Six foot tall, a herd of elephant: special use of the singular in certain syntactic contexts
CambridgeGEL, page 1588 reads
Examples like She’s six foot tall involve a special use of the
singular form rather than a base plural: the difference between this
and How many feet are there in a mile?...
- 2,433
2
votes
2
answers
429
views
Why is seraphim a plural of seraph? [closed]
This pluralization pattern is highly unlike those I found in English, such as those ending in -(e)s and ones that were technically borrowed from Latin and Greek, thus following different patterns that ...
- 258
12
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Why is stigmata a plural of stigma?
When I first looked this word up on Dictionary.com, I found entries not for it, but instead stigma. I was baffled. Words in the English language usually follow the -(e)s pluralization pattern, but why ...
- 258
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
What is the proper written plural possessive form for nouns that do not take -s, -es, or -ses upon pluralisation?
For most English words, the rules for construction of possessive forms are fairly simple.
Singular nouns are possessivised by adding -’s to the end (even if the word already ends with an S):1
cat → ...
- 380