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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Useful Resources for Class 10 Lesson Wit and Humour (Greek and Latin Plurals)




  • Final a becomes -ae (also ), or just adds -s:
alumna alumnae
formula formulae/formulas
encyclopaedia (or encyclopædia) / encyclopedia encyclopaedias / encyclopedias (encyclopaediae and encyclopediae are rare)
Scientific abbreviations for words of Latin origin ending in -a, such as SN for supernova, can form a plural by adding -e, as SNe for supernovae.
  • Final ex or ix becomes -ices (pronounced /ɨsiːz/), or just adds -es:
index indices /ˈɪndɨsiːz/ or indexes
matrix matrices /ˈmeɪtrɨsiːz/
vertex vertices /ˈvɜrtɨsiːz/
Some people treat process as if it belonged to this class, pronouncing processes /ˈprɒsɨsiːz/ instead of standard /ˈprɒsɛsɨz/. Since the word comes from Latin processus, whose plural in the fourth declension is processūs with a long u, this pronunciation is by analogy, not etymology.
  • Final is becomes es (pronounced /iːz/):
axis axes /ˈæksiːz/
genesis geneses /dʒɛn.ə.siːz/
nemesis nemeses /ˈnɛməsiːz/
crisis crises /ˈkraɪsiːz/
testis testes /ˈtɛstiːz/
Axes (/ˈæksiːz/), the plural of axis, is pronounced differently from axes (/ˈæksɨz/), the plural of ax(e).
  • Final ies remains unchanged:
series series
species species

Miscellaneous irregular plurals

Some words have irregular plurals that do not fit any of the types given here.
person – people (also persons, in more formal contexts; people can also be a singular noun with plural peoples.)
die – dice (in the context of gaming, where dice is also often used as the singular; and also in the semiconductor industry. Otherwise dies is used.)
penny – pence (in the context of an amount of money in Britain).

Apophonic plurals

The plural is sometimes formed by simply changing the vowel sound of the singular (these are sometimes called mutated plurals):
foot feet
goose geese
louse lice
dormouse dormice
man men
mouse mice (computer mouse can also take the regular plural form mouses)
tooth teeth
woman women /ˈwɪmɨn/


Some can do either:
dwarf dwarfs/dwarves
hoof hoofs/hooves
elf elfs/elves
roof roofs (commonly voiced as /ruːvz/ to rhyme with hooves, but rooves is a rare archaic spelling)
staff staffs/staves
turf turfs/turves (latter rare)

Plurals of nouns in -o

With nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, the plural in many cases is spelled by adding -es (pronounced /z/):
hero heroes (or heros)
potato potatoes
volcano volcanoes or volcanos
However many nouns of foreign origin, including almost all Italian loanwords, add only -s:
canto cantos
hetero heteros
photo photos
zero zeros
piano pianos
portico porticos
pro pros
quarto (paper size) quartos
kimono kimonos

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