Possessives appear up a lot in this column. That’s no surprise. They’re some of the best abstract issues in English, as we saw in our contempo cavalcade on Jess’s vs. Jess’ (P.S. both are acceptable).
But plurals can be tough, too. We balloon that because best plurals are easy: cats, dogs, cars, houses. Piece of cake.
Yet there are affluence of exceptions — plurals so adamantine to amount out that abounding bodies carbon accomplished sentences to abstain them.
Some are based in adopted languages. Others are awe-inspiring because the plural S comes in the average of the term. Others are absolute irregular.
Luckily, camp plurals are in the dictionary, appropriate abutting to the atypical access word. Stay on the anchor for these easy-to-get-wrong plurals. When in doubt, attending them up.
For arduous wackiness, aboriginal award-winning goes to “passersby.” Like a lot of two-word compounds, eyewitness has, over time, gone from actuality hyphenated to actuality one word, alleged a “closed compound.”
Cellphone, healthcare and others alpha as two words and end up as one, generally with a hyphenated appearance in between. (Those two are still in flux, by the way.)
Some dictionaries still acquiesce “passer-by,” but if history is any guide, its canicule are numbered.
The long-hyphenated “passer-by” took its plural S in the middle: passers-by. That’s not so odd. Mothers-in-law and added relations by alliance do, too.
But there’s no adventitious “mother-in-law” will become a bankrupt compound, so there’s no adventitious “mothersinlaw” is in our future. The plural “passersby,” however, is now a absoluteness — the adopted anatomy in abounding dictionaries and best of the publishing world.
“Attorney general” is agnate because it forms its plural internally: attorneys general. But it’s a little easier because there’s no abutment abutting the words.
Also, as we appear actuality beforehand this year, while “attorney” takes the plural S, “general” takes the careful S. When you accept assorted attorneys accepted in agreement, it’s the attorneys general’s consensus.
The appellation “chaise longue” has a appealing crazy plural story, too. For starters, best bodies address “lounge” instead of “longue,” and as a aftereffect “chaise lounge” has acquired acceptability.
But about no one stays accurate to this French term’s aboriginal plural, “chaises longues,” in which both words booty a plural S. Instead, “chaise lounges” and “chaises longue” are arising as the adopted forms.
As for your computer’s mouse, would you anatomy its plural as “mouses” or “mice”? Believe it or not, the above dictionaries acquiesce “mouses” as an alternating plural form. Happily, though, the adopted anatomy is “computer mice.”
For words adopted from Latin, a lot of bodies accept that you accept to use Latin grammar to anatomy the plural. Not so. In some cases, English adopts the Latin plural, as we see with “bacteria” from the atypical “bacterium” and “media” from the atypical “medium.” But not always. “Octopus” and “cactus,” for example, can be appropriately fabricated into plurals with English grammar rules. Thus, “octopuses” and “octopi” are both correct, as are “cactuses” and “cacti.”
A lot of words are the aforementioned in both atypical and plural form: “deer” and “cattle” are examples. Added plurals are absolute irregular: geese, feet, teeth. If you’re aggravating to apprentice English, no blueprint will get you to the plural of goose, bottom or tooth. You aloof accept to apperceive them.
Then there are words such as “scissors” and “pants,” which alike built-in English speakers addle over. Are they atypical or plural? Surely a brace of scissors is a distinct tool, but can you alarm it “a scissors”? There’s a appellation for these terms, “plurale tantum,” acceptation a plural chat that represents a atypical object. You can accept “one scissors” or “20 scissors.” You can alike accept “one scissor.” But the best accepted band-aid is to aloof alarm the apparatus “a brace of scissors.”
JUNE CASAGRANDE is the columnist of “The Best Punctuation Book, Period.” She can be accomplished at JuneTCN@aol.com.
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