Forming a plural is appealing easy, right? You aloof add an “s” to something. Unless, of course, it’s a chat that already ends in an “s,” like “grass,” in which case you add “es,” to accomplish “grasses.”
Or if it ends in an “o,” like “buffalo,” in which case you additionally add an “es,” to accomplish “buffaloes.”
Or if it ends in an “f,” like “leaf,” in which case you change the “f” to a “v” and add “es,” to accomplish “leaves.”
Or if it ends in a “y” that is preceded by a “qu” or a consonant, in which case you change the “y” to an “i” and add “es,” as in “city/cities” or “soliloquy/soliloquies”… And that’s not alike demography into annual “child/children,” “mouse/mice,” “goose/geese,” or “deer/deer.”
Okay, so basic plurals isn’t so easy.
It’s alike worse back the plural is allotment of a admixture noun, acceptation the noun formed of added than one word, like “father-in-law.” Most of us apperceive that the plural of that is “fathers-in-law,” because the “fathers” are the noun part.
What about “attorney general,” “court-martial,” or alike “bon vivant”?
Now we’re accepting into addled territory, in the minds of many.
“Bill moves advanced to change appointing future Attorney Generals” apprehend one headline. Close, but no cigar. It’s tricky, because both “attorney” and “general” are nouns, so it seems altogether acknowledged to aloof add the “s” to the additional word, and that generally happens in account reports. “General” here, though, is an adjective, not a noun; you can anticipate of them as “general attorneys.” So the plural goes on the noun, and the able anatomy is “attorneys general.”
Unless you’re British. Then you can alarm them “attorney-generals,” but don’t balloon the hyphen.
“Court-martial” has a abutment (which is generally forgotten), so you’d be forgiven to anticipate it follows the British and the plural is “court-martials.” But you’d be wrong, as one law annual was. Again, the important chat actuality is “court,” so it’s the one that gets the plural, “courts-martial.”
These kinds of admixture nouns accept what are alleged “postpositive” adjectives. The adjectives chase the nouns, as against to actuality in front, as they usually are. They accommodate “account receivable,” “heir apparent,” and “professor emeritus.”
As Grammarist put it: “Such constructions appeal the access that Romance languages, abnormally French, accept had and still accept on English. French, Spanish, and Italian all use postpositive adjectives as a rule.”
Well, maybe not a rule, but commonly. “The big house” is “la grande maison” in French, with the adjective above-mentioned the noun, while “the dejected house” in English is “la maison bleue” in French, with the adjective afterward the noun. Unlike in English, the adjectives additionally frequently become plural: “The big houses” are “les maisons grandes,” and “the dejected houses” are “les maisons bleues.”
Then there is “bon vivant.” It’s a French appellation that agency addition who enjoys life, abnormally adequate aliment and drink. (The accurate adaptation is “good liver.”)
Even admitting it’s a absolutely English expression, it doesn’t chase the asinine English rules on plurals, it follows the French. Admitting you’ll see it frequently as “bon vivants,” with the plural accustomed alone to the noun, it’s altogether okay—and adequate English—to say “bons vivants.” In fact, some dictionaries account no alternatives.
And that, friends, are some “bons mots” about plurals.
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