Skip to main content

Irregular Plurals

Plurals, the Silliness of them All

Hi all,

 Busy, busy times at the end of the semester.  I thought I would write something extensive about irregular plurals in nouns -- you know, we don't say mouses but mice or we don't say mooses but moose.  Many animals (mouse, moose, goose, sheep, fish, deer, and so on as well as man, woman) don't form their plurals by adding an -s or -es. 
Even in the image on the left, the word corn is unchangeable in the plural -- it's actually a non-count noun since we say some corn* or change the word to a count noun corncob.

Some plurals even come from different languages, whose words we have borrowed verbatim or nearly directly from other languages (like the above word verbatim from Latin).  This is different from a cognate, where the word is either the same or very similar between two languages:  English man and German Mann; English experience and French expérience; English verandah, Portuguese varanda and Hindi बरामदा or baraṇḍā.  Some similar words:

  • 1 analysis => 2 analyses
    1 crisis => 2 crises
    1 hypothesis => 2 hypotheses
  • 1 lexicon => 2 lexica
    1 criterion => 2 criteria

You should turn to a good dictionary with pronunciation assistance in order to find out how we pronounce the plurals of these words.

 However, why should I bother with all of this with such good resources available on the web already?  The University of Victoria on Victoria Island in Canada has an outstanding page on this subject, whose explanations are accompanied by exercises that you can find at the bottom of the page.  Click here to check it out.
And enjoy!

*Never corns as in this picture taken from a less accurate source than this on the internet.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Irregular Verbs in Context 1

Do you have this look of sheer terror on your face when you think about irregular verbs?   Oh come on, they're not that  bad, are they?  Chances are, you've been memorizing them in a list where you almost have to recite the three mutations (conjugations) to be able to use the second one or the third one.  This is an acceptable method if you are able to use the three without hesitating too much.  And if you have a lot of time to recite the three forms of the verb each time you need to use one. However, there are better ways.  Contextualization is the key, in my opinion.  Below is a first series of irregular verbs in different sentences, including sentences (answers) that you will need to construct.  Take the time to go through them and really do them, i.e. thinking about each answer.  Take as much time as you need before checking the answers which will be at the bottom of the page ... eventually.  Then, once you have finished t...
Post a Comment
Read more

More New Pages!

Hi all, I am busy posting more new "Pages" on the blog.  You should consider these pages like a reference  or   text book and go back to them from time to time, especially the "Words" page, as I've realized that I cut it a bit short.  There should be some lines about count/non-count nouns, verbs never in the progressive form, and differences between Latinate and Germanic origins and their influence on grammar (comparatives/superlatives) and spelling, and so on. Also, keep an eye on these pages in the coming weeks for exercises both here and on my favorite web site for exercises:   www.quia.com .  All will be original of course and -- at least for the time being -- free of charge. Thanks for logging on and your interest! Paul
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't Get Familiar with Me!

Don't Get Familiar with Me! Like many students know, English has only one 2nd person way of addressing people, both singular and plural:   you.   But what does this word mean? Well, as it so happens, many languages have both a familiar and a formal term to use when addressing others: *Brazilian Portuguese has nearly totally lost all trace of the familiar tu  to standardize the você  form for both formal and familiar, with the plural being vocês . English, contrary to the above languages but like other languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, no longer makes a difference between formal and familiar.   Did you catch that adverbial?  " No longer ."  This means that English did indeed at one point have a different 2nd person.  English kept  the formal way of addressing others you  and lost the familiar!  You might think this odd, but actually it is quite common:  on the French island of Réunion in the south I...
Post a Comment
Read more