Irregular Plurals
Many nouns in English have a plural form either with an s/es ending or without. For example, when is it correct to use youth vs. youths, fish vs. fishes, or hair vs. hairs?
Use youths and hairs when countable.
Example: Three youths were given awards for community service.
If youth is being used collectively, do not add the s.
Example: The youth of today watch less TV but spend more time on the computer.
When youth is used as a collective noun, you may follow it with either a singular or plural verb. I chose the plural verbs watch and spend because I felt that we were using youth in a plural manner here.
Examples: The hairs on her chin were long.
Her hair is long.
The words fish and fishes are interchangeable although some references say to use fishes when referring to two or more species.
Examples: This fish is huge.
These barracuda fish are huge.
All the barracuda fish in the reef are enormous.
The fishes in the reef are colorful. (indicating two or more species)
Some nouns do not change at all in their plural form.
Examples: sheep, deer, offspring, series, species
Other nouns have plural forms that do not involve adding an s.
Examples: alumnus/alumni, radius/radii, child/children, woman/women, foot/feet, goose/geese, tooth/teeth, vertebra/vertebrae, mouse/mice
To confuse us even more, some nouns change their is ending in the singular to an es ending in the plural.
Examples: parenthesis/parentheses, paralysis/paralyses, diagnosis/diagnoses
Is there a simple way to know the plural of a noun? Only if you’re psychic. The rest of us are stuck with having to rely on the dictionary.
Brain Teaser
This question came from a listener to a radio show that I was a guest on:
Which is yellow in the song, “itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini,” the dots or the bikini?
I looked up the original lyrics and information about the songwriter but was unable to determine the songwriter’s intent from reading his biography. What is your opinion?
The Funnies
Thanks to Andrea K. for spotting this in an article written by Anderson Cooper ( apparently unedited):
Well, I can’t wait to introduce you to a little boy that will shatter all those stereotypes. His name is Dylan Jackaway. He’s five and a half years old and he knocked my socks off from the moment I met him. He has piercing blue eyes that are full of passion and dark hair.
What’s wrong with Anderson’s last sentence? It is a case of a misplaced modifier. The sentence should read: He has dark hair and piercing blues eyes that are full of passion.
This smile is a gift from Bob T.:
This happened to me whilst teaching at one of my TESOL classes at a college in England; I hope you find it as amusing as I did.
After setting my class a task, I sat down to peruse some of their homework. After several minutes one of the male students called out, “Bob, how do you spell sex?”
Somewhat at a loss I asked, ‘Why do you want to spell sex? Sex has nothing to do with the task I’ve just set?”
His reply, “’Well, I want to spell insects and I know how to spell in.”
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English In A Snap: 68 One-Minute English Usage Videos
View Jane’s 68 one-minute video lessons that are available FREE. Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and bosses), children, teachers, and friends.
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June 25th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Should I use a comma or a semi colon in the following sentence:
Cathy has closed 2,692 units in 180 separate transactions, totaling $246 million…
June 28th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Thanks for the interesting, diverse and thought-provoking blog! I’ll be returning often.
Clint, enjoying his summer break in Boulder, CO
June 28th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Thanks!
June 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Karin,
I would use a comma after “transactions.”
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:16 am
Karin, DO NOT use a semicolon in that case. Keep your comma exactly where it is. Semicolons are only used to connect two closely-related, (usually but not always) short sentences. A semicolon is stronger than a comma but weaker than a period, so it is useful and versatile; it can also give your paragraph color by contributing to varied sentence structures. I often use semicolons with cause-effect sentences - in place of the word “because.” For example, “I like dogs; I enjoy their companionship.”
NOTE: If I were to say, “I like dogs, I enjoy their companionship,” I’d be using a comma splice (using a comma where a sentence should end), and that is incorrect. I see this all the time, so watch out! Most people don’t seem to know that a sentence can only end with a semicolon, period, question mark, exclamation point, or sometimes a dash - NEVER a comma. A comma should only be used before a conjunction in a compound sentence and where you would pause if you were to read a sentence out loud, such as in your sentence above.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Abby, I agree with your comments to Karin.