Latin Plurals

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mtorley77

#27901 Sat, 17 Apr 04 05:08 AM

I'm curious about how many Latin words in common American English usage are generally pluralized using Latin standards, versus English standards. For instance, the word "forum" is almost always pluralized as "forums," when it should be pluralized as "fora" if one is sticking to Latin rules.

I have an immediate interest in the word "status." Is "statuses" the preferred pluralization of this word in American English, or is "statii" (I think) acceptable?

mtorley77

Joined on Sat, Apr 17 2004

New Member (01)

American English

suzi

#28451 Sat, 24 Apr 04 11:06 AM

as words become integrated into every day life the trend is for the patterns of the "new" language to take over, in terms of both spelling, morphology (endings) and pronunciation. Forums is becoming the standard now, as is medias.

As for status, both sound a bit clumsy and if I was writring it I'd try to find a way of avoiding the plural altogether! LOL

suzi

Joined on Wed, Jan 7 2004

Full Member (465)

Plurals, Spelling, Pronunciation, Morphology