If this were not the case, the entire world would still be speaking a single language or perhaps somewhere between three to five languages in total. ", First, just what is this “plural system?”, Pluralization of nouns in English is a messy business, and always has been. If you are saying that the use of the word "stamina" in English should only be as a plural, then I agree with you. B4 I red this i wuz ignorant of the originz of many of my words. When I said "most" I was generally referring to the examples I used. 1) a meeting or medium for an exchange of views. You first get a taste of it in Basics 2 with words like “vrouwen” (“vrouw” in the singular) and “mannen” (“man” in the singular).. 2. Common usage doesn't alter its singularity.   Report Abuse. There are no hard-and-fast rules, but here's my taxonomy: 1. Forums is considered the norm among most of the English-speaking public, no matter how awful it sounds. Feb 27, 2008 #5 thickness' ? Mutated Plurals The second group of plurals we’ll talk about are mutants, which also have Old English roots (4). Sorry, don't understand the comment by David Fickett-Wilbar at all. I can understand why people disagree with me on this - and, after all, my argument isn't necessarily directed at anyone in particular; and I assume that most people understand where I stand and why. A very common usage of 'none' is as a contraction of 'not one', a singular term, yet it is in this usage that we so often hear the plural verb used. I never hear anyone say 'datas'.". I think there's basis for using both, but having taken Latin classes, I'll probably stick to using "fora". It should be memorabilis. ©2020 CYCLE Interactive, LLC.All Rights Reserved. My favorite: For anyone who takes Latin, like Jenn obviously does (yay, someone else who is a Latin scholar and knows what they are talking about :D) we know all of what Jenn said. So much for the "language's origins" argument. E.g. clock. "Forum" is a Latin word, so the correct plural form is "fora." I want to argue for this at my work because the term fora is being used and I want to know if there’s more evidence that I’m actually correct, besides what the Oxford English Dictionary tells me. Thus, they are pronounced differently. or fill in the name and email fields below: In Latin, forum is a neuter noun; in its plural form, it is correct to say fora. Agenda, erotica, opera, data, media, bacteria, candelabra, paraphernalia, trivia, graffiti are all borrowed from Latin plurals (Italian in the case of graffiti), so treating these words as singular would be wrong by hot4teacher's standards. Be a cruel joke to play, indeed.". Are you really claiming that "forums" isn't a standard or "correct" English word? Gratuit. Uncountable nouns (example “milk”, “flour”, “water”) do not have a plural form. According to dictionary.com both hare and hares are correct. Regular Plural Forms 1.1. The fact that people still use "datum" or "bacterium" (granted in specific industries) means that the use of "a data" or "a bacteria", although common, is (I believe) wrong. Top. You don't want to make the very same mistake as your teacher! This may be something to do with the principle of Cabinet government, of decisions being made semi-collectively and in debate by a body of people. It's actually Greek, so if you want to get picky, the plural should be "octopodes.". hot4teacher: "... just because people say things one way, doesn’t mean that this way is correct. SINGULAR should be octopede, NOT octope. 6 votes But if I am a cactus aficionado, I will almost certainly say cacti.". To me, this indicates that normal usage has incorporated "forum" as a proper English word of Latin origin, and therefore the word follows the normal English rules for forming plurals. Using "forums" is much like using "octopuses", "radiuses" or, to a lesser extent, "fishes". And, yes, it would be normal to speak or write in a London or Edinburgh publication of Microsoft or IBM as "they" not "it". Rua Aubé, 895, 89205000 Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brésil. hot4teacher seems to be arguing that a word should have a certain plural form that matches the plural form in the language the word was borrowed from. Example with a regular noun: Singular form of noun: car ( I have one car.) We use the word "datum" when referring to datum edges in product measuring and manufacturing; medium is used everywhere, especially in visual arts contexts; bacterium is still used in biology studies and articles. This is not uncommon in English; we also have 'octopi' and 'cacti,' both of Greek origin. "Hot4teacher, using the English-based plural system ALWAYS applies. However, words that are borrowed from Latin are usually fit into the grammatical structure of the borrowing language (not always though). The idea of a correct language is either what the general majority believes to be correct, or what the original language holds to be acceptable.   Report Abuse. ", No we don't. By clicking ‘continue’ or by continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.   Report Abuse. "I would say that treating those words as singular would be wrong, especially considering that most of their singular forms are still used in modern English.". Many plural nouns that are argued about today have long been anglicized. ", 12 votes But nearly all neuter nouns, of all declensions, take the "a" as the ending in the nominative/accusative plural. A bit more on-topic though... finally pulling out my dictionary to review its wisdom on this sub-topic - I see that "octopod" actually refers to an entire order of "cephalopod mollusks" (including "the octopuses"), whereas "octopus" refers to the specific genus (with a note "broadly [in italics] : any octopod excepting the paper nautilus"). What we call the "definition" of a word is, in reality, simply the most commonly agreed upon usage.If the majority did accept "ploorul" as the proper spelling, then so it would be.   Report Abuse. As for stamina, I have never personally seen or heard anyone use stamina as a singular form. [which might be amended with :]And were We Us, then would IBe Octopuses, Octopodes or Octopi ? The word originally referred to a bride’s excess stuff, beyond her dowry. But I assert that if you know the original plural, you might as well use it.