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Can you suggest a word in the English language which needs a prefix to be converted to a plural form?

Vishal Modi
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    I suspect the question is "Is there an English word whose plural is formed by adding a prefix?" which is not the sort of thing which can be looked up easily. – Andrew Leach Jan 04 '16 at 07:27
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    Some easy cases are borrowings from other languages, generally with reference to a people, where a person of that people is the same word sans pluralizing prefix. – JEL Jan 04 '16 at 08:14
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    Night —> Fortnight – anotherdave Jan 04 '16 at 09:50

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There is no such word in the English language.

Consider this source about unusual word forms: It mentions several unconventional plural forms and then goes on to explain that there is only one word in the English language where the feminine form is derived using a prefix rather than a suffix:

Demirep is the only word in the English language which is made feminine by applying a prefix, rather than a suffix, to the masculine form, which is rep.

If there was a plural formed by adding a prefix instead of a suffix, I'm sure it would've been mentioned in the list above.

Another way to look at the question are English words which do not have a distinct plural form:

In the case of, for example, aircraft, there is no such thing as aircrafts, so you would instead say two aircraft. However, here you're adding merely another word, it is not technically a prefix.

Yet another example that comes to my mind is the word dipole. This is derived from Greek δίς (dis), twice and πόλος (pòlos), axis. It refers to a field with two poles, and isn't really a plural (or dual, for that matter) form of pole.

The word dipole describes a specific concept within physics where both poles are seen as one unit; it is more than just two poles, and dipole itself has a plural form, namely dipoles. So dipole probably doesn't count as a plural, at least not in the usual sense.

Generally, the feature plural prefix isn't the most common among the languages of the world (see WALS for a map and list). It is present in many languages of Southern Africa, but also in some native American languages.

If there is an English word which has a plural prefix, it's most probably a borrowing from one of those languages.

tmh
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  • Interesting, but I don't know if that list is super-comprehensive. For animals, it's relatively common to use the prefix she- to form a feminine, and there are other prefixes used in words like pussycat (vs. tomcat). It's true that these are derived from common-gender rather than male forms, but I'm not sure that rep is strictly male either; the OED defines it as "an immoral or dissolute person." Also, I'm pretty sure there are currency words used in English that are taken from foreign languages that use plural prefixes, and these prefixes are sometimes used in English. – herisson Jan 04 '16 at 07:44
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    Ah, see curiousdanni's answer at this duplicate question: Is there any noun in English which changes the first letter in the plural? – herisson Jan 04 '16 at 07:51
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    @sumelic Ah, that's interesting. That Q&A also mentions dipole and African languages, so I guess I was on the right track. It seems, however, that even if there is a prefix-based plural in some language, it rarely if ever gets adopted to English (regarding ekwele/bipkwele). – tmh Jan 04 '16 at 08:02
  • What about sala and multisala, or player and multiplayer? Maybe the OP wanted a prefix that could make a singular noun plural? – Mari-Lou A Jan 04 '16 at 09:25
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    @Mari-LouA According to the OED, multiplayer is an adjective "denoting or relating to a video game designed for or involving several players". – tmh Jan 04 '16 at 09:31
  • well, the OP only asked for a "word", what about polyatomic, which is still an adjective though... Personally, I think the question, as posed, is unclear, but I've been overruled. – Mari-Lou A Jan 04 '16 at 09:36
  • @sumelic overruled in the sense people seem to have understood the OP's request. I think before the edit, it was unclear. After the edit, the question is possibly ambiguous. – Mari-Lou A Jan 04 '16 at 09:54
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I think this refers to a puzzle from NPR's Weekend Edition. The answer is a bit tricky, because the plural is not the plural to the singular. Anyway, the answer is "ides," which becomes "aides." This is based this MetaFilter thread.

Shane
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    The answer is actually "YES/AYES", but I'm not certain that this is what the questioner is referring to. The "a" in this word is not a prefix, properly speaking. – herisson Jan 04 '16 at 09:32
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    @Shane It's my understanding that ides is already a plural form (of Latin idus). – tmh Jan 04 '16 at 09:34
  • @tmh: actually ides came into English from the French plural form (also spelled "ides") descended from the latin plural form īdūs. It seems like Latin did not even have a singular form. Anyway, as you say it is plural. – herisson Jan 04 '16 at 09:36
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    @sumelic Indeed, the answer "yes/ayes" is technically not correct. Yes and aye are both defined as a noun referring to "an affirmative answer". However, the plural forms of yes and aye are yeses and ayes, respectively. It's not that ayes is the direct plural form of yes. – tmh Jan 04 '16 at 09:38
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    @tmh: You can look at the link to see the wording used in the NPR Weekend edition; it is very precisely formulated so that the answer kind of qualifies: "Think of a word whose meaning you can make plural by adding an A at the start. Start with a very common singular noun, add the letter A at the beginning, and you'll make the meaning plural. What word is it?" However, someone else trying to repeat the NPR edition problem who didn't know the correct answer would likely phrase the problem in a way that excludes it! – herisson Jan 04 '16 at 09:40
  • @tmh - The OP poses a different question then the NPR does: word whose meaning you can make plural* by adding an A, opposed to: needs a prefix to be converted to a plural form*. – Mazura Jan 04 '16 at 09:50
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I presume "prefix" means a prefix in the word itself or "sheep" would qualify: "one sheep", "two sheep". There are also words like "polyhedron" but I cannot think of one where either the non-prefixed form would be a recognized word as well as having a multiple-entities meaning ("polyester" fails on the second condition). Similarly for the mathematical term "multiset" where the multiplicity is a feature of the membership rather than indicating multiple sets. A "multi-track recording" comes close: you cannot write something like "tracks recording" or "several-tracks recording" instead. However, the singular form would be "single-track recording" rather than "track recording".

user153808
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I want to say, "Yes, the ayes have it!" for ayes is a plural yes. However, in as much as a- is a bona fide prefix, the a before yes in ayes isn't that prefix or a prefix at all. Thanks though for getting me to resurrect this ancient bit of trivia that I miraculously still remember from middle school.

Benjamin Harman
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