Irregular Plurals

of Greek and Latin Origin, continued

Singular and Plural Nouns

In terms of quantity, amount or number, nouns take on singular or plural forms. Singular nouns indicate one person or thing. Plural nouns refer to two or more persons or items.

The plural forms of English nouns are further divided in regular and irregular.

Regular Plural Nouns

Regular plural nouns are formed by affixing the suffix –s, –es, or –ies to their singular forms. Most nouns have regular plural forms.

Regular plural noun = (singular noun)-s/-es/-ies.

Examples:

Singular	Plural
Forms	Forms
password	passwords
wall	walls
flamingo	flamingos
chef	chefs
hand-cuff	hand-cuffs
torch	torches
bush	bushes
potato	potatoes
lady	ladies

 
Irregular Plural Nouns from Greek and Latin

Unlike regular plural nouns, irregular plural nouns follow a different set of patterns.

Loan words in English from foreign sources (mostly Greek and Latin) sometimes retain their original plurals. These include the following:

singular	plural
criterion	criteria
curriculum	curricula
datum	data
medium	media
memorandum	memoranda
phenomenon	phenomena
diagnosis	diagnoses
hypothesis	hypotheses
oasis	oases
thesis	theses
fungus	fungi
stimulus	stimuli
syllabus	syllabi

For more irregular plural noun forms from Greek and Latin, see IRREGULAR PLURAL NOUNS, GREEK and LATIN.

Respond to the following

1. The explorers decided to head north. Why?
2. What do you have to do to earn a master’s degree?
3. What is the basis of Keynesian economics?

Answer the following Questions

Or respond to the statements. Say if they are true, not true/false, yes, no, yes and no, sometimes, maybe, it depends, in the middle, possibly, I agree, I disagree. Say why and give examples.

1. Fungi such as mushrooms and truffles are my favourite food. I love the great variety of fungi dishes.
2. Describe the basic curricula for medical, engineering and business majors (students).
3. Which is more accurate in business, market research data or intuition (gut feelings, hunches)?

4. What are the diagnoses for the financial, budget, debt, housing, crises?
5. How effective are the various learning stimuli your teachers used in class? What are some economic stimuli that politicians and economists have proposed?
6. My friends (and I) have written theses on _____. What would you like to write a thesis on?

7. What are some hypotheses for rise and fall of civilizations and societies?
8. Does your company post memoranda? Where? What do they typically announce?
9. What are some interesting psychological, physiological and environmental/natural phenomena?

10. What are your criteria for a good place to live?
11. Talk about the different types of data storage that you (your parents) have used or had.
12. What is the role of the media? What’s the purpose of the media? What are the goals of the media? Are they fulfilling those roles?

 

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