Learn the irregular plurals of the following nouns.
| SingularPlural
| SingularPlural
| | alumna –alumnae
alumnus – alumni
analysis – analyses
antithesis – antitheses
appendix – appendices
axis – axes
bacterium – bacteria
basis – bases
cannon – cannon
child – children
curriculum – curricula
datum – data
deer – deer
die – dice
dynamo – dynamos
ellipsis – ellipses
emphasis – emphases
fish – fish (fishes – different
kind of fish)
focus – foci
foot – feet
| fungus – fungi
goose – geese
hypothesis – hypotheses
louse – lice
man – men
maximum – maxima (maxims)
minimum – minima
mouse – mice
oasis – oases
ox – oxen
parenthesis – parentheses
phenomenon – phenomena
piano – pianos
radio – radios
sheep – sheep
swine – swine
thesis – theses
tooth – teeth
vertebra – vertebrae
virtuoso – virtuosi
woman – women
| 3.6. Supply the plural form for the singular nouns listed below and explain the use of the form:
Criterion, deer, datum, analysis, foot, child, loaf, phenomenon, life, basis, woman, alumnus, thief, focus, tooth, sheep, louse, goose, hoof, mouse, fish, swine, elf, ox, curriculum, basis, datum, thesis fisherman, statesman, a woman-doctor, a house-wife, a pocket-knife.
Invariable nouns
Always singular (singularia tantum) are:
1) uncountable nouns that may belong to different grammatical groups: proper nouns (Minsk), mass nouns (butter), most abstract nouns (music) and some collective nouns (furniture).
2) some nouns ending in -s, naming:
a) some diseases: shingles, measles;
 b) subject names in -ics: mathematics, economics [1];
c) some games: billiards, darts, draughts;
d) some proper nouns: Athens, Brussels, Naples, the Thames, Wales;
e) miscellaneous nouns like a chemical works (‘a place of work’), a barracks (‘a building that soldiers live in; a big plain and usually ugly building’), headquarters as in The headquartes consist s of the commander and five members of his staff; customs (in the meaning of ‘the agency for collecting duties on import and export’).
Always plural (pluralia tantum)are nouns denoting:
1) things consisting of two or more parts: scale s; trouser s, pyjama s, short s, scissor s;
2) other pluralia tantum in - s: thank s, custom s (in the meaningof ‘duties, tolls imposed on import and export’), lodging s, auspice s, arm s (in the meaning of ‘guns’), quarter s (in the meaning of ‘assigned position, lodgings, esp.for soldiers’), valuable s, good s, wage s, stair s, clothe s, content s;
3) some other collective nouns with no -s at the end (unmarked plural): cattle, police, the rich.
NOTE that the category of number may not coincide in English and Russian nouns.
Thus, nouns potato, onion, carrot, oat may be plural in English (potatoes, onions, carrots, oats)while in Russian they are usually singular: Potatoes are cheap in this country – В этой стране картофель дешевый. ‘A potato’ means ‘одна картошка’.
The words wages and contents are plural in English but their correlated words ‘зарплата’, ‘содержание’ are singular in Russian.
The following English words are always singular advice, information, knowledge, money, news, permission and progress,while their Russian equivalents are either plural (деньги) or can be both singular and plural (новость, новости).
The English nouns watch and sledge are regular nouns and can be used both in the singular and the plural while Russian часы and сани are pluralia tantum.
E x e r c i s e s
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