Search results for 'tag:Plurals tag:Pronunciation' matching tags 'Plurals' and 'Pronunciation'

Re: pronunciation of Girlfriend & boyfriend.

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:45:00 GMT

Speaking as an American teenager:

Girls will say "I went out with my girlfriends" (meaning friends who are girls), "I went out with my boyfriend" (meaning a boy whom they are dating), or, at least with teenagers, "I went out with my guy friend" (referring to a boy who is your friend and only your friend). I've never heard girls says "boyfriends", plural, as that would imply she was dating several men at once!

Boys will say, "I went out with my girlfriend" (meaning a girl whom they are dating), "I went out with my buddy" ("buddy" is used for friends who are boys. "Buddy" is rarely used for girls), or "I went out with my friend" (which can be used for both boys and girls).

Re: majority is or are??

Goodman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:06:41 GMT

I'll say it depends. It may have to do with what context it's used but by and large, I see it as more frequently used in singular context.

The American Heritage^Â® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

majority

SYLLABICATION:	maÂ·jorÂ·iÂ·ty
PRONUNCIATION:	m-jÃ´r-t, -jr-
NOUN:	Inflected forms: pl. maÂ·jorÂ·iÂ·ties 1. The greater number or part; a number more than half of the total. 2. The amount by which the greater number of votes cast, as in an election, exceeds the total number of remaining votes. 3. The political party, group, or faction having the most power by virtue of its larger representation or electoral strength. 4. Law The status of having reached full legal age, with attendant rights and responsibilities. 5. The military rank, commission, or office of a major. 6. Obsolete The fact or state of being greater; superiority.
ETYMOLOGY:	French majoritÃ©, from Medieval Latin mirits, from Latin mior, greater. See meg- in Appendix I.
USAGE NOTE:	When majority refers to a particular number of votes, it takes a singular verb: Her majority was five votes. His majority has been growing by 5 percent every year. When it refers to a group of persons or things that are in the majority, it may take either a singular or plural verb, depending on whether the group is considered as a whole or as a set of people considered individually. So we say The majority elects (not elect) the candidate it wants (not they want), since the election is accomplished by the group as a whole; but The majority of the voters live (not lives) in the city, since living in the city is something that each voter does individually. â¢Majority is often preceded by great (but not by greater) in expressing emphatically the sense of âmost ofâ: The great majority approved. The phrase greater majority is appropriate only when considering two majorities: He won by a greater majority in this election than in the last.

Re: On "data" pronunciation

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:09:30 GMT

That psychology professor at UC Berkeley is misinformed on the subject.

Datum is the singular form.

Data is the plural form of datum.

Check Webster, Oxford, etc.

A similar example would be "Media" and "Medium"; Medium is the singular form of Media.

Data can be used as a singular non-countable noun nowadays, but the latin origin of "Data" is "Datum".

Nobody uses "Datas", or worse, "Datae".

Now, on the pronunciation...

Before even thinking about how to pronounce "Data", think about how you would pronounce "Datum".

If you start the first syllable of Media and Medium the same way, wouldn't you do the same for first syllable of Data and Datum?

Here's a little rote to help: "Orlando Bloom is cute, but I would never 'Datum'."

Re: Diva

Yoong Liat — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:14:20 GMT

New2grammar

I always thought of a diva as a famous female singer until I hear models being called divas recently. Do you call fashion models divas?

Hi New2grammar

The following is for your information. It answers your question.

Main Entry: diÂ·va Pronunciation: \ËdÄ-vÉ\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural divas or diÂ·ve \-(Ë)vÄ\ 1 a: prima donna 1 b: prima donna 22: a usually glamorous and successful female performer or personality <a fashion diva>; especially : a popular female singer <pop divas>

Re: Plural of s = s'es?

Yoong Liat — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:30:33 GMT

Hi Pter

Thanks. That's where I am confused. I thought the pronunciation need to match the spelling and therefore "es". Now I know that this is not necessary. I just checked my pronouncing dictionary and surprised to find that it lists all the pronunciations of the plurals of all the 26 alphabets. The plural of s is s's, and the pronunciation is /esiz/. I should have checked that dictionary earlier.

I hope you do not mind. It should be 26 letters. The alphabet consists of 26 letters.

Re: Plural of s = s'es?

Pter — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:43:31 GMT

Yoong Liat
2a. There are two s's in the sentence. (The modern tendency is to add -s to pluralise a word. However, the -'s is still common. I would write s's because ss looks odd.)
2b. There are two PSs in the meeting. (I think either PSs or PS's is fine although I prefer the latter. )

Thanks again, Yoong Liat. I think this is not a matter of right or wrong, but just a matter of style. Many people still use the apostrophe. In fact, if the abbreviation has to be in lower case (I can't think of such a situation yet), I would also use the apostrophe. Therefore, I would write MPs, but mp's. I won't write mps because the s could be confused as part of the abbreviation.

Yoong Liat
In addition, how should they be pronounced? (Pronounce as in 1a and 1b)

Thanks. That's where I am confused. I thought the pronunciation need to match the spelling and therefore "es". Now I know that this is not necessary. I just checked my pronouncing dictionary and surprised to find that it lists all the pronunciations of the plurals of all the 26 alphabets. The plural of s is s's, and the pronunciation is /esiz/. I should have checked that dictionary earlier.

Yoong Liat
PS I have never seen P.SS. or p.ss. My copy of Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary does not have such an entry nor does any other dictionary I checked. (Maybe yours is not the latest edition.)

Seems that we are talking about different dictionaries instead of different versions. The name on the page you quoted does not have "Webster's". Anyway, why we need a plural for PS? A postscript is a short remark. Although it is possible that the "short" remark is not that short and may have more than one paragraph, it is still one short remark. Two paragraphs don't make it two postscripts. I was told that an additional PS added after the original PS is PPS - Post-Postscript.

Re: Plural of nouns: Pronunciation.

Pter — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:41:57 GMT

I've asked a similar question before. My question was the pronounciation of the final "s", not just plural of nouns. See this thread:

http://www.englishforums.com/English/SAndZ/zkcdm/post.htm

I've made a summary of what I've learnt at the end of the thread.

Re: Plural of nouns: Pronunciation.

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:30:13 GMT

you can give me some example with te use of the extra sound

Re: Are men more intelligent than women

Tanit — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:10:15 GMT

Yoong Liat

Main Entry: geÂ·nie Pronunciation: \ËjÄ-nÄ\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural geÂ·nies also geÂ·nii \ËjÄ-nÄ(-ËÄ«)\ Etymology: French gÃ©nie, from Arabic jinnÄ« Date: 1748

Hi,
According to your dictionary (and to Merriam-Webster), they are both fine. Geniuses is the regular English plural, while genii is the original Latin plural.
This often happens with words that come from Latin. For instance,

aquarium => aquariums or aquaria
stadium => stadiums or stadia
plectrum => plectrums or plectra

Re: Are men more intelligent than women

Yoong Liat — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:02:39 GMT

Clive Woodward
Indeed extensive research shows that men's brains are considerably bigger (and heavier) than women's. (http://www.univ.trieste.it/~brain/NeuroBiol/Neuroscienze%20per%20tutti/heshe.html)
P.S. Pieter, isn't the plural form of genius genii?

No, it should be 'geniuses'.

Main Entry: geÂ·nie Pronunciation: \ËjÄ-nÄ\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural geÂ·nies also geÂ·nii \ËjÄ-nÄ(-ËÄ«)\ Etymology: French gÃ©nie, from Arabic jinnÄ« Date: 1748

1 : jinni 1 2 : a magic spirit believed to take human form and serve the person who calls it