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Beyond Foot/Feet and Man/Men

Sep 28, 2001

In a previous article, I touched on irregular plural forms of some nouns, and the sad reality that they can really only be memorized, as rules don't always apply.

Sure, the common ones which leap to mind are man-->men, deer-->deer, knife-->knives, foot-->feet, and sister-in-law-->sisters-in-law. But there are other, lesser-known pairs of irregular plurals.

Here, I'd like to expand on these nutty critters and provide for you a starter list for reference:

SINGULAR ----> PLURAL

alga ----> algae

analysis ----> analyses

antenna ----> antennae

appendix ----> appendices

basis ----> bases

cherub ----> cherubim

corpus ----> corpora

crisis ----> crises

criterion ----> criteria

datum ----> data

esophagus ----> esophagi

fauna ----> faunae

fungus ----> fungi

index ----> indices

lira (Italian currency) ----> lire

medium ----> media

nucleus ----> nuclei

oasis ----> oases

ox ----> oxen

parenthesis ----> parentheses

radius ----> radii

retina ----> retinae

seraph ----> seraphim

stratum ----> strata

syllabus ----> syllabi

thesaurus ----> thesauri

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2. Sep 28, 2001 2:35 AM
...why, if the plural of mouse is 'mice', and the plural of louse is 'lice', why isn't the plural of house 'hice'?

(This sort of thing keeps me awake at night.)

Cheers,

Martin ...

-- posted by Laughman

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