For questions about words which have an irregular plural form.
Sources on irregular plurals
-Grammarly: introdution to irregular plurals
Questions tagged [irregular-plurals]
109 questions
23
votes
3 answers
The plural of 'stomach"
Words ending in ch usually take es in the plural form. However, the word stomach is an exception to this paradigm. Its plural form is stomachs. My question is, why does it take only s in the plural form?
Mohamed Ali
- 1,442
5
votes
1 answer
What is the plural of platinum?
In the card game Dominion, I always thought that the “Platinum” card, in the plural form, would be “Platinums”. However, Dominion Online lists the plural form as “Platina”.
Is this correct, or is Dominion Online wrong?
MrHiTech
- 181
4
votes
3 answers
Can 'go' be pluralized as 'gos'?
Thanks for all the answer, guys!
Go which means:
A Japanese board game of territorial possession and capture, played
with usu. black and white stones or counters on a board marked with
intersecting lines.
I am going to be very specific here. This…
Flonne
- 349
3
votes
2 answers
How to call properties of many objects properly?
In programming, there are lots of times where we need to access attributes of multiple objects.
E.g., when we want to refer to the color of many cars.
Suppose each car has only one color. And I want to set the color of each car to red.
How do I say…
offchan
- 133
2
votes
1 answer
How to pluralise a proper noun that ends with an adjective
The phrase was "How many Ark Royals have there been in The Royal Navy".
There have been 5 ships of the name Ark Royal
My question however is. is "Ark Royals" the correct plural form?
Should it instead be "How many Arks Royal have there been in The…
Jasen
- 965
2
votes
2 answers
General Term for Offsets Plural
Is there a general term for multi-word entities where the pluralization appears on the first word because the following words are adjectival (but required) modifiers?
Examples
Attorney General -> Attorneys General
Medal of Honor -> Medals of…
Peter Vandivier
- 192
1
vote
0 answers
What is the correct plural of Lord/Lady justice?
Members of the Court of Appeal of England & Wales, and the Court of Appeal for Northern Ireland are styled Lord (or Lady) Justice.
What is the correct plural? In American and Canadian English, one might say Associate Justices of Puisne Justices…
1
vote
1 answer
One troop full of troops?
A troop is a group of soldiers but when they say 32,000 troops they mean 32,000 soldiers, not 32,000 groups of soldiers. But one soldier is never referred to as one troop. What's up with that?
mattz
- 129
1
vote
3 answers
The pural opi for opus is a joke, right?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/opus attests that some people in the classical music world use "opi" as a plural for "opus." I think this is just a joke, giving a pseudo-learned false-Latin form for the plural. But I want to make sure.
Can anyone…
Colin McLarty
- 123
1
vote
4 answers
What is the plural of 'Kraken'?
What is the plural of Kraken, the sea monster? It is a word not listed in any dictionary.
Issues:
The word has a Teutonic feel and so might be inflected like German plurals, so 'Kraken' (a null plural)
The word is now part of English and should be…
Mitch
- 71,423
1
vote
1 answer
"Kids is mean" or "kids are mean"?
Which one is correct?
"Kids is mean" or "kids are mean"?
I saw the first one in Ghostbuster's subtitle on netflix, and was wondering why would it be correct if Kids is plural.
Ricardo Martins
- 113
0
votes
3 answers
Can a stables (for horses) be used as a singular noun?
A "stable" is the compartment where an individual horse is housed.
A "stables" is the building which contains multiple stables/horses.
So the stables is a singular building, but the word "stables" is clearly plural, not singular...
Example…
Dasmowenator
- 109
0
votes
2 answers
Is it "three types of fish" or "three types of fishes"?
I have learnt that the plural of fish is still fish.
However, if we refer to different types of fish, we can use fishes; for example:
The aquarium has three fishes: goldfish, carp, and guppy.
If that is the case, do we say three types of fish or…
Marcus Vitruvius
- 21
- 2
0
votes
3 answers
Plural of "Director and Vice President"
There is a position in a company, "Director and Vice President".
If two people are in this position, are they:
Director and Vice Presidents
or
Directors and Vice Presidents?
Steven Brown
- 9
- 1
0
votes
1 answer
How to add a possessive to a plural that doesn't follow the "add s" rule?
Let us say that I want to talk about the houses that are collectively owned by a set of mice. The phrase "the mice houses" doesn't make sense to me, but "the mice's houses" also doesn't. If I understand the 's form of the plural, it is an…
