Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Languages and Linguistics

Starboard Tack

(11,181 posts)

4. The French "s" is the regular plural

Reply to geardaddy (Reply #3)

Sat Mar 17, 2012, 01:46 PM

Mar 2012

So, all other plurals are irregular, like German (as you mention) and lots of Latin, as in "media", "paraphernalia", "alumni", or Italian, as in "spaghetti".

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

8 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Does anybody know how come English retained some irregular plurals (feet, mice, oxen, children, [View all] raccoon Feb 2012 OP

Irregularities are most likely to be retained in very common words Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2012 #1

There was a U of Rochester dissertation a decade or so back that looked at this. Igel Feb 2012 #2

I'm guessing most "irregular" plurals are Germanic in origin geardaddy Feb 2012 #3

The French "s" is the regular plural Starboard Tack Mar 2012 #4

Late to the party, but... Dead_Parrot Apr 2012 #5

Welsh has a lot of examples of irregular plurals geardaddy Apr 2012 #6

"went" is a regular past tense. Speck Tater Dec 2012 #7

Here's another example: fero, ferre, tuli, latum Lionel Mandrake Aug 2014 #8