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

• Final a becomes -ae (also -æ), 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