ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:37:35 GMT

language should evolve over time - the debate that is taking place with regard to Latin phraseology is outmoded. CV or curriculum vitae is acceptable and in general use but curricula vitarum......I ask you !!!!

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:32:39 GMT

A CV produced by one person is his curriculum vitae. If over the person's lifetime he produces multiple CVs, then collectively they are his curricula vitae.

By contrast a bundle of CVs of different people would collectively be their curricula vitarum.

Vitae is the genitive singular, and vitarum the genitive plural, of vita.
In this context curriculum or curricula is the nominative case, singlar or plural as they cxontext requires.

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Tanit — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:14:46 GMT

9maven9
Curriculum vita is the CV of one person
Curriculum vitae are the CVs of more than one person
Vitae is the Latin plural of Vita

Hi,

Not quite...
Although it is true that vitae can be the nominative plural of vita (i.e. life used as a subject), it can also be its genitive singular form (i.e. life's, or of life). If interested, please have a look at this page from Wikipedia about the first declension in Latin.
The correct (singular) phrase, in Latin, is curriculum vitae, where vitae is genitive singular.

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

9maven9 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:41:19 GMT

Curriculum vita is the CV of one person
Curriculum vitae are the CVs of more than one person
Vitae is the Latin plural of Vita

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:55:33 GMT

I quite agree with Curricula Vitae (being plural) as it is based on the use of a Latin phrase. A possible alternative is "Work History" as we speak English (not Latin) or resume (as point out by another poster).

Also, if you see CV's this is wrong according to contemporary (Australian) use as the apostrophe denotes possessive. Some would argue that the apostrophe is actually correct as it indicates an abbreviation, this was the case in the 70s and 80s (then we used to write 70's and 80's denoting abbreviation), but not in the 2000s.

David, Sydney (Technical Editor)

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:30:54 GMT

Yes, it is correct to use the plural form of curriculum vitae as CVs. Curriculum = pl. Curricula.

Regards,
Vezha Vendan M.P.

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Anonymous — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:04:23 GMT

Curricula vitae is the plural of curriculum vitae

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Marius Hancu — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 11:40:24 GMT

FWIW, this British dictionary seems to indicate that resume is indeed not used in UK, but only in US:
------
rÃ©sumÃ©

1 a short statement of the important details of something:
She gave us a brief rÃ©sumÃ© of the project so far.

2 US FOR CV:
She sent her rÃ©sumÃ© to fifty companies, but didn't even get an interview.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
http://dictionary.cambridge.org
--------

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Clive — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 05:30:38 GMT

Hi Jim,

I'm afraid I can't remember.

Nona? MrP?

Clive

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

CalifJim — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:19:24 GMT

Clive,
Is that true in Britain, too? I've heard that resume is not used there, only CV.
Jim

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Clive — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 02:18:21 GMT

Hi guys,

Where I live, people who have CVs are usually academics, people in the arts, professional people, that kind of thing. Most people, who are more ordinary employees, speak of their resumes, and use that as the title at the top of their first page. Job ads usually say 'Please submit your resume to . . .'

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Sadeem — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 01:51:57 GMT

even the word itself i got to know it last year!!

so as far as i know it's CV

CVS!!

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

CalifJim — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:39:37 GMT

Well, if you (as an employer, say) have received a lot of curricula in response to a job opening, supposedly each is a curriculum of another life, right? ... unless the same person sent in numerous copies of the same CV.

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

Tanit — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:15:22 GMT

CalifJim wrote:
Wouldn't that be curricula vitarum?

'Vitarum?' ... Provided you've got many lives...

Re: Plural for Curriculum Vitae

CalifJim — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:05:36 GMT

Wouldn't that be curricula vitarum?

(It's been years since I did Latin.)

CJ