{"id":2016,"date":"2019-09-06T13:07:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T13:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2024-04-20T23:14:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T23:14:07","slug":"fun-facts-21-plurals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2019\/09\/06\/fun-facts-21-plurals\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Facts About English #21 &#8211; Irregular Plurals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"702\" width=\"702\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/021.jpg?resize=702%2C702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Fun Facts About English 21 Kinney Brothers Publishing\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You&#8217;re likely familiar with irregular plurals like <em>children<\/em>, <em>geese<\/em>, and <em>mice<\/em>.  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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The language roadmap becomes even more complicated when irregular plurals have <em>alternate<\/em> plural forms.  <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">ThoughtCo<\/a> explains, &#8220;Sometimes, alternative plurals have even developed different senses, as in the cases of (spirit) <em>mediums<\/em> vs.\u00a0(mass) <em>media<\/em>, <em>appendixes<\/em> (in bodies or books) vs. <em>appendices<\/em> (only in books), or <em>antennae<\/em> (for insects) vs. <em>antennas<\/em> (for televisions or radios).&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As you&#8217;ll see in the shortlist below, many words with irregular plurals are&nbsp;loanwords that have kept their foreign plural forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The plural of&nbsp;beef&nbsp;is <em>beeves<\/em>. This is true only for beef in the sense of &#8216;cow.&#8217;  Multiple arguments are <em>beefs<\/em>.<\/li><li>The plural of&nbsp;opus&nbsp;is <em>opera<\/em> or <em>opuses<\/em>.<\/li><li>The plural of&nbsp;sphinx&nbsp;is <em>sphinges<\/em>.  <em>Sphinxes<\/em> is an acceptable secondary option.<\/li><li>The plural of&nbsp;biceps&nbsp;is <em>bicepses<\/em>.<\/li><li>The plural, gender neutral form of&nbsp;nieces and nephews&nbsp;is <em>niblings<\/em>. Coined in 1951, this <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/neologism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">neologism<\/a> is reserved for specialist literature.<\/li><li>The plural of attorney general&nbsp;is <em>attorneys general<\/em>.  Similar plurals would be <em>postmasters<\/em>&nbsp;<em>general<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>mothers-in-law<\/em>, and&nbsp;<em>coups<\/em>&nbsp;<em>d\u2019etat<\/em>.<\/li><li>The singular form of&nbsp;spaghetti&nbsp;is <em>spaghetto<\/em>! Likewise, the singular form of&nbsp;confetti is&nbsp;<em>confetto<\/em>, and&nbsp;graffiti is&nbsp;<em>graffito<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Test your knowledge with this list of the <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/irregular-plural-nouns-in-english-1692634\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">100 most common irregular plurals<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mistaking compound words can make a writer (and reader) facepalm!  Learn <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/09\/25\/fun-facts-72-everyday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the difference between <em>everyday<\/em> and <em>every day<\/em><\/a>.  You might also be interested in <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/10\/02\/fun-facts-73-contronym\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the conundrum with contronyms<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/06\/09\/fun-facts-57-gender-specific-nouns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the problem with gender neutral nouns<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">See the <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2019\/08\/30\/fun-facts-about-english-20\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">previous<\/a> or <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2019\/09\/13\/fun-facts-about-english-22\/\" target=\"_blank\">next<\/a> <strong>Fun Facts About English<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Store\/Donalds-English-Classroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/HEADER_GIF.gif?w=702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Donald's English Classroom\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bingo may seem like just a game to kids, but as teachers, we know it is another chance to review!  Check out all the <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Store\/Donalds-English-Classroom\/Category\/-BINGO-287741\" target=\"_blank\">Bingo games<\/a> ready for download in <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Store\/Donalds-English-Classroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donald&#8217;s English Classroom<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[20,38,835,171,96,1517,1516,11,811,1338,493,1519,1518],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fun-facts-about-english","tag-donalds-english-classroom","tag-education","tag-english-grammar","tag-english-language-learning","tag-fun-facts-about-english","tag-grammatical-rules","tag-irregular-plurals","tag-kinney-brothers-publishing","tag-language-quirks","tag-language-trivia","tag-linguistics","tag-loanwords","tag-plural-forms","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/021.jpg?fit=1252%2C1252&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GlQB-ww","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11091,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/11091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}