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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".

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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