Singular nouns having more than one plural form?

Question

Are there any examples of singular nouns having more than one plural form in English?

Dokterjokkebrok · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Terminus termini/terminuses
Cactus cacti/catuses
Curriculum curricula/curriculums
Referendum referendums/referenda
Stadium stadia/stadium
Phenomeon phenomena/phenomenons (I'm not too sure about this last one)

Also,

Banjo banjos/banjoes
Volcano volcanos/volcanoes
Buffalo buffalos/buffaloes
Cargo Cargos/cargoes
Mosquito mosquitos/mosquitoes
Flamingo flamingos/flamingoes
Tornado tornados/tornadoes

Torpedo torpedos/torpedoes
Ghetto ghettos/ghettoes

These are a bit silly, but still:

MP MPs/MP's
1980 1980s/1980's

Kind regards,

Dokterjokkebrok

Mr Wordy · Answer

Also, there are a bunch of nouns that can, in the plural, either take the usual -s or remain the same. I think most of these are probably living creatures. E.g:

fish -- fish/fishes

giraffe -- giraffe/giraffes

A couple of miscellaneous ones that popped into my head:

brother -- brothers/brethren ("brethren" is obsolete now except in certain special contexts, such as religious groups)

person -- persons/people

And, as well as the many words of Latin and Greek origin (such as the "cactus", "terminus" etc. that dokterjokkebrok listed), there are some irregular French plurals that, in English, are sometimes pluralised in the French way and sometimes as if they were Engish words:

chateau -- chateaux/chateaus

Avangi · Answer

Forums--fora  <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' alt='Emotion: big smile'/>

Singular nouns having more than one plural form?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions