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Sentences constructed with a word written in the singular and parenthetically in the plural are straightforward when that word does not end in -y, e.g.:

List all applicable employee(s).

How does one handle words ending in -y? Is this correct:

I will attend the party(ies).

herisson
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fordareh
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    I wouldn't get too hung up allowing for the possibility of only one - if you need to allow for more than one anyway, just use the plural. Otherwise it'll do your head in when you consider the grammaticality of your first "instruction" if it were to only be in the singular. "List all applicable employee" is simply nonsense, and I don't see how adding (s) gets you out of that. – FumbleFingers Dec 07 '11 at 00:46
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    There are no rules for these things and I am no better placed to devise a method than you are! – WS2 May 24 '14 at 07:14
  • It is possible that there is no convention in this case. Perhaps: Will the responsible party/parties please come forward. – anongoodnurse May 24 '14 at 07:33
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    @medica That is exactly how I would write it. Depending on the context, either party/parties or party (parties). Similarly, man/men or man (men). – Janus Bahs Jacquet May 24 '14 at 07:40
  • @tchrist I would not approve of the 'accepted answer' on that post. Party(ies) is fine and very (much more?) common. – Kris May 24 '14 at 12:47
  • This comes with practice (i.e. lot of reading and listening). –  May 24 '14 at 13:32
  • @FumbleFingers: Ane possible rewording of "List all applicable employee(s)." to explicitly allow possibility of a singular (or vacuously, zero) employee while retaining legitimate consistent grammaticality could be as such: "Fully list applicable employee[/s].". Other--in my opinion, less-neutral-- words can be used instead of 'fully'; such as 'exhaustively', 'sweepingly'. – 11qq00 Oct 05 '21 at 20:27
  • @11qq00: I don't think including adverbial *fully, briefly, etc. to modify list* makes the awkward syntax much better. What would make a difference is including "adjectival" *any* to modify the "ambiguous plural subject" here. I see no real problem with List any* applicable employee(s)*. – FumbleFingers Oct 06 '21 at 11:43
  • @FumbleFingers ~~Aye, if "any" there be taken to mean “all of any[ existent] applic..” (as opposed to "any[ arbitrary, or by some-whatever metric…] applic.."). – 11qq00 Oct 06 '21 at 15:57

5 Answers5

16

An alternative to the use of parentheses to provide both singular and plural forms is to separate them with a slash:

party/parties

This would be preferred in this and other similarly awkward formations such as wife/wives, and in special cases such as mouse/mice.

Stuart Allen
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    If you're writing something that you may be judged on (whether for a grade, or for business in terms of your competence, or simply by other grammar Nazis that you want to impress) then I would go with this. But I think this is hardly more concise than fully writing out " or " instead of using a slash. For 99% of the writing I do, I would just go with the parenthetical (ies). – BVernon Mar 16 '16 at 02:35
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    "Would be preferred" by whom, exactly? Not by me. – Colin Fine Apr 10 '20 at 09:36
  • For short words (under three syllables / ten letters or so) like this, listing both number possibilities looks as good or better than the 'short-hand' approach, since the relative space savings for the alternative is smaller than with longer nouns. – 11qq00 Oct 05 '21 at 20:31
7

"Party(ies)" is certainly used in official contexts.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22party%28ies%29%22+site:.gov

Neil W
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5

I think the following may also be an acceptable way of dealing with an uncertain plural ending in "y":

part(y/ies)

PolyGeo
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1

A safe, formal alternative is of course to use the singular and the plural with or, e.g.

I will attend the party or parties.
Patrick Sanan
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-3

When we can't continue a word in brackets to show the options, we must show both(all) words.

Thus:

   I/We will attend your party

But:

  You(s) are invited to the party (ie alone or with a friend)

Thus in your case you need to write:

  Party (Parties)
Barry Goddard
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    You(s)? That’s eye dialect (and only works for IrE, ScE, and some dialects of AmE to boot), so hardly appropriate for any kind of even semi-formal writing. – Janus Bahs Jacquet May 24 '14 at 15:26