When speaking about non-mathematical groups of items (i.e. a series), is there a plural usage for the word series? My favorite book series are all crime novels. Is it correct to use series as a plural here? Answer The word series is one of those irregular nouns in English which is the same both singular … Read more
As the title says, what is the correct plural form of regex? To my knowledge, regex is an abbreviation for regular expression. I see that some sources suggest regexes and regexen are both correct. The latter plural form sounds maybe German? Any suggestions? Answer This is domain-specific jargon (the domain being Information Technology), rather than … Read more
In the sentence below, is “waste” grammatically appropriate because “Category A” is a group of medical waste? “What treatment methods are used for Ebola or other Category A medical wastes?“ Answer “What treatment methods are used for Ebola or other Category A medical waste?” The use of the conjunction OR means you would use a … Read more
Plurals derived from Latin words ending with -us normally have the ending -i. However, the plural of virus is viruses and the plural of bonus is bonuses because these words do not have Latin plurals in English. Considering the fact that the majority of English words come from Latin (or Greek, usually via Latin), why don’t these words have Latin plurals in … Read more
What is the plural of Kraken, the sea monster? It is a word not listed in any dictionary. Issues: The word has a Teutonic feel and so might be inflected like German plurals, so ‘Kraken’ (a null plural) The word is now part of English and should be pluralized exactly like all other normal English … Read more
I’d like to know what’s the singular term of music, is it muse? Answer Music is usually used as uncountable. But when this noun means “a distinctive type or category of music” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/music) it is a countable noun. So in this meaning it has both singular and plural forms (i.e., a music, some musics). Etymologically … Read more
Words ending in ch usually take es in the plural form. However, the word stomach is an exception to this paradigm. Its plural form is stomachs. My question is, why does it take only s in the plural form? Answer The use of the spelling “-ches” in plural forms of words that end in “-ch” … Read more
In programming, there are lots of times where we need to access attributes of multiple objects. E.g., when we want to refer to the color of many cars. Suppose each car has only one color. And I want to set the color of each car to red. How do I say it? Set all cars … Read more
Which is correct? A minimum of two personnel are required to meet this objective. or A minimum of two personnel is required to meet this objective. Answer Your question relates to a common ‘singular versus plural’ dilemma, where there is a reasonable case for each. 1 A minimum of two personnel are required to …. … Read more
According to a English grammar rules, we add ‘es’ when the noun ends with ‘s’, ‘ss’, ‘sh’, ‘x’, or ‘ch’. With these rules, ‘ox’ would become ‘oxes’ in the plural. Can ‘oxes’ be used as the plural of ‘ox’? Answer It is a very old word, Old or Middle English, and is irregular, like “child … Read more
