![]() ![]() Irregular formation of nouns ending in -on Singular ( -is )Īxes (this is also the plural of ax and axe) Some people have a hard time remembering that the plural of crisis is crises and the plural of axis is axes, but crisises and axises are incorrect. Nouns with an -is ending can be made plural by changing -is to -es. Irregular formation of nouns ending in -is In fact, if you put a fine point on it, since octopus is of Greek origin rather than Latin, theoretically the plural should be octopodes, not octopi. Many people resist the spelling octopuses, but it is perfectly acceptable. If you are a zoologist, you might say, “Hey, did you see those hippopotami?” but it would sound silly on a casual visit to the zoo. With the double i, radii (pronounced RAY-dee-i) sounds unwieldy, but if you are a mathematician, you probably use it every day. If there is an anglicized version that is well accepted, this will be noted in the dictionary entry for the word you are using. The latter method sounds more natural in informal settings. ![]() Many plurals of words ending in -us have anglicized versions, formed by simply adding -es. To make a word ending in -us plural, change -us to -i. Some of them also have anglicized plural forms that have come into common use. Many of these words retain their Latin or Greek plurals in math and science settings. There are certain words we use on a regular basis, especially in mathematical and scientific contexts, that are borrowed from Latin or Greek. NASA has made several different types of spacecraft in its fifty-nine-year history. Some English nouns are identical in their singular and plural forms. Irregular nouns that do not change at all Wouldn’t that have been convenient? Irregular nouns that change substantiallyįor a variety of historical reasons, some words change in spelling substantially when made plural. Thus, he advocated for the return of the Old English plural wimmen. Singularįun fact: The eighteenth-century American dictionary reformer Noah Webster preferred spellings that were closer to their most common pronunciations. Many English words become plural by changing their vowels, such as oo to ee or an to en. Cello, which is an abbreviation of the Italian word violoncello, can be pluralized in the traditional way, as celli, or the commonly accepted anglicized way, as cellos. (Aren’t there always?) Some words ending in -o that are borrowed from other languages take only an s to make a plural, such as pianos, cantos, photos, and zeros. Singular ( -o )īut of course, there are exceptions. Plurals of words ending in -o are usually made by adding -es. Singular ( -f, -fe )Įxceptions: roofs and proofs (among others). This spelling arose because of the difficulty of pronouncing f and s together in English (an attempt to do this will produce a v sound). The result for both types is a plural that ends in -ves. Similarly, if a word ends in -fe, change the f to a v and add an s. To make a plural of a word ending in -f, change the f to a v and add es. The most common irregular plurals Nouns ending in – f and – fe ![]()
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