There are several ways to pluralize words from Latin. Some words end in -we be plural with one -I (alike student ARRIVE Alumni). Some words do not change form in Latin, so their plurals have been Anglicized with an addition -es (status ARRIVE status). Finally, many scientific words come from New Latin, which has many possible endings, such as -ae (beard), -One (data), -es (crisis), and more.
The biggest rule is: there is no one big rule.
A common misconception surrounding the English language is the notion that all nouns of Latin origin end with a suffix. -we in the singular should end with -I when they are in the plural. And in fact, there are many such things -I Latin plural in English: witness eyeball (a word for an oval window or a round hole in the top of a dome) and its plural eyeor more popular student/Alumni And stimulate/stimulate.
Latin words without ‘-i’ in the plural
However, there are quite a few Latin nouns that do not have -I plurals even in their original language have been naturalized into the English language. In Latin, these nouns belong to a group in which the singular and the plural are spelled the same. A sample of such words is Prospectus, statusAnd apparatus. None of those words have a -I many. In English, the plural of Prospectus anglicized to Prospectus and of status ARRIVE status. apparatusalthough, there are regular English plurals apparatus but also retained in some Latin plural use apparatus.
New Latin plural
Also (and to make things more complicated), many words that come from science are derived from something called New Latin (e.g.: octopus And Obsessions), a type of Latin that has been used since the late Middle Ages, specifically for classification and scientific description. Some of these new Latin words were modified to resemble medieval Latin words; however, a large number also acquire entirely inflected forms in English.
diaphragm, which refers to the horizontal coordinates of a point in the Cartesian coordinate system plane obtained by measuring parallel to the x-axis (see illustration at the definition link), is a good example. New Latin words have Latin plurals diaphragm and anglicized plural diaphragmgive other plural forms including the suffix -ae And -Onewith inflections ending in -S And -es, can change the spelling of a word. For example, we have Appendix/Appendix, antenna/beard, medium/media, crisis/crisis, the point/crossAnd Table of contents/index.
In short: some words derived from Latin have both native plural and English forms. It is also acceptable to use the plural form in Latin in the singular, acceptable, as in English, as in agenda, dataAnd trifles. When considering the plural or singular form of Latin, consult our dictionary—that’s our recommendation.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
