Sage-Tips

Is the plural of us I?

3 Answers. Use “-i” for plurals when the word is borrowed from a Latin word that used “-i” for plurals. Note that in Latin not all words that end in “-us” are made plural by changing the “us” to “i”. For example, in Latin the plural of “locus” (place) is “loci”, but the plural of “fructus” (fruit) is “fructus”.

What is the plural of a word ending in us?

To make a word ending in -us plural, change -us to -i. Many plurals of words ending in -us have anglicized versions, formed by simply adding -es.

What words have no plural?

Nouns that don’t change in their plural forms (called “zero plurals”) include “series,” “aircraft” and “species.” But most zero-plural words refer to animals, e.g., deer, moose, sheep, elk, walrus, antelope, fish, buffalo, salmon.

How do you plural a name ending in i?

Rule: To show plural possession, make the proper noun plural first, then use the apostrophe. Examples: I petted the Murphys’ cat. I visited the Murphys’ store on Main Street.

Is my plural?

The plural form of my is our.

What is regular and irregular plural?

Summary. Regular plurals of nouns are formed by adding -s, -es, or -ies to the singular (e.g., girl s , virus es , dut ies ). Irregular plurals also often follow a pattern, originating sometimes in the parent language or rules of older forms of English (child ren , criter ia , oas es , g ee se, m ice , ind ices ).

Does system have plural?

The plural form of system; more than one (kind of) system.

Why is there no s after deer?

If you look in a dictionary you will see that “deer” comes to us from the German “tier”, a beast. German does not form the plural by adding an “s” as English does, so one deer, two deer, etc. So when you get interesting questions like this, look in a dictionary and see where the word came from.

Why do we say deer not deers?

Deer is the preferred plural form of deer, a hoofed mammal. Deers is an accepted plural, but it is rarely used. The word deer comes from the Old English word, deor, which means four-legged animal, beast. Also the Dutch word, dier and the German word, tier.

Is the plural of a word ending in -US?

Some words ending in -us which have come to the English language from Latin only take the plural form by ending in -i. Other words that end in -us, do NOT form the plural forms ending in -i. These words are not originally from Latin.

Why do these words have these plurals in -a and -I?

These words have these plurals because they are loan words from Latin. Words that come from Latin that end in -um usually have plurals in -a, while those that end in -us have plurals in -i. This way of forming plurals is normal in Latin, and learned English preserves the native Latin plurals. Key word: “usually.”

Are there any nouns that end in -US in English?

Then there are the occasional neuter third declension nouns ending in -us that have carried their own elaborate plurals into English: corpus/corpora, genus/genera, onus/onera, opus/opera.

How are plurals formed in Latin words?

Words that come from Latin that end in -um usually have plurals in -a, while those that end in -us have plurals in -i. This way of forming plurals is normal in Latin, and learned English preserves the native Latin plurals.