Odd Plurals 2

By georgelthomas on 16 Feb 2019 • ( 2 )

Hi everyone! Once again I’ve found myself thinking about plurals. I was having a heated discussion earlier about the plural form for cactus. I was adamant the plural was cactuses, and my friend was convinced the plural was cacti, which of course – as all of you will no doubt know – it is. My search online for the correct plural form led me, as it has before, to other odd plurals, so I’ve decided to share a few with you below.

Passerby: you might think that adding a simple ‘s’ on the end of passerby would be the correct way to pluralise the word, but then that just sounds terrible. No, the plural for passerby is not passerbys, but passersby. One passerby, two passersby.

Lowlife: the plural of lowlife isn’t lowlives as you might expect. After all, the plural for life is lives. In this case however, the plural is simply lowlifes. One lowlife, two lowlifes.

Millennium: this is another one of those words where you’d think adding a simple ‘s’ on the end would be the best way to create the plural, but that’s not the case. The plural form of the word millennium is millennia. One millennium, many millennia.

Spaghetto: this is an interesting one; who knew that the word spaghetti is actually the plural? Well, it is. The singular – as in one spaghetti noodle – is spaghetto. One spaghetto, two spaghetti.

Phenomenon: the simple ‘s’ isn’t fit to pluralise this word either. Strangely, the plural form of the word phenomenon is phenomena. A single phenomenon, multiple phenomena.

Vertebra: this is another strange one. Just when you’d think the simple ‘s’ should definitely pluralise the word vertebra, you find that the plural is vertebrae and it’s pluralised by a less than simple ‘e’. One vertebra, two vertebrae.

So, those were another six odd plurals! I hope you found them as interesting as I did.

As always, thanks for reading my words, I appreciate you spending your valuable time with me!

Until next time,

George