All Questions
Tagged with silent-letters suffixes
10 questions
1
vote
2
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179
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Does the suffix -ify have any inherent characteristics of making letters pronounced which would otherwise be silent?
It is quite clear that the word "signify" is derived from sign and the suffix -ify:
sign + -ify = signify
The letter "g" in the word sign is silent but when the suffix is added, ...
user387044
4
votes
4
answers
12k
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Why is it "argument" instead of "arguement"?
Why would you replace the <e> in argue before affixing <-ment>?
- 41
5
votes
2
answers
119k
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Why is the plural form of piano "pianos" and not "pianoes"?
The rule says that if a singular noun ends in consonant + "o" then the plural form will be consonant + "oes".
e.g. tomato => tomatoes.
Then, why this rule does not apply to piano?
- 169
0
votes
0
answers
2k
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What is the parenthetical plural of "baby"? [duplicate]
A letter home from daycare may be sensitive to the fact that some children have a single parent like this:
Dear Parent(s),
And if that same letter home wanted to be sensitive to the fact that I ...
- 173
42
votes
1
answer
66k
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Is it "togglable" or "toggleable"?
The dialect is American English, but I'd be interested to know if this varies between dialects. Is it"togglable" or "toggleable"? Because neither dictionary.com, webster.com, nor Outlook's spelling ...
- 661
1
vote
1
answer
32k
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Entry(s) or Entrie(s)? [duplicate]
Sometimes you come across this format suggesting 'one or more', in not as many words, like "Please select the book(s) you wish to loan". But what happens in that case of plurals that don't follow the ...
- 501
91
votes
3
answers
31k
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Is it "falsy" or "falsey"?
I have seen both spellings of this word, falsy and falsey.
It can mean "something that is equivalent to false" in computer science, such as "The only two falsy values in the Ruby Language are false ...
- 3,033
90
votes
4
answers
89k
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"Updatable" vs. "Updateable": which is correct?
Which spelling is correct, "updatable" or "updateable"?
For example, "The file is not updat(e)able."
By the way, I did go to Google and ref.dic.com for this first, and they both seem to indicate ...
- 1,065
14
votes
5
answers
19k
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Is there a good rule of thumb for plurals of words ending in "o"?
The following words and their plurals seem to be somewhat inconsistent:
combo / combos
concerto / concertos
grotto / grottos / grottoes (?)
hero / heros (?) / heroes
potato / potatos (?) / potatoes
...
- 35.9k
12
votes
2
answers
19k
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When should a singular word ending in "y" end in "ies" plurally?
Words like "sky" and "money" have "ies" as a plural suffix (i.e. "skies" and "monies") but other words like "monkey" and "Emmy" do not ("monkeys" and "Emmys"). Is there a rule dictating the use of "...
- 1,463