You’re likely familiar with irregular plurals like children, geese, and mice. For many English language students, the logic, or lack thereof when it comes to plurals, can be mind-boggling. Even for native speakers, there are many words that baffle us as well. Without any rules or guidelines, many irregular plurals must simply be learned and remembered.
The language roadmap becomes even more complicated when irregular plurals have alternate plural forms. ThoughtCo explains, “Sometimes, alternative plurals have even developed different senses, as in the cases of (spirit) mediums vs. (mass) media, appendixes (in bodies or books) vs. appendices (only in books), or antennae (for insects) vs. antennas (for televisions or radios).”
As you’ll see in the shortlist below, many words with irregular plurals are loanwords that have kept their foreign plural forms.
- The plural of beef is beeves. This is true only for beef in the sense of ‘cow.’ Multiple arguments are beefs.
- The plural of opus is opera or opuses.
- The plural of sphinx is sphinges. Sphinxes is an acceptable secondary option.
- The plural of biceps is bicepses.
- The plural, gender neutral form of nieces and nephews is niblings. Coined in 1951, this neologism is reserved for specialist literature.
- The plural of attorney general is attorneys general. Similar plurals would be postmasters general, mothers-in-law, and coups d’etat.
- The singular form of spaghetti is spaghetto! Likewise, the singular form of confetti is confetto, and graffiti is graffito.
Test your knowledge with this list of the 100 most common irregular plurals!
Mistaking compound words can make a writer (and reader) facepalm! Learn the difference between everyday and every day. You might also be interested in the conundrum with contronyms or the problem with gender neutral nouns!
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Bingo may seem like just a game to kids, but as teachers, we know it is another chance to review! Check out all the Bingo games ready for download in Donald’s English Classroom!