Irregular English Plurals

[gfish]

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had to come up with a list of irregular plurals in English. This is what I have so far. I'm posting it here because 1) I think they're very pretty words, and 2) if you see any that I'm missing, please post.


calves - calf
elves - elf
halves - half
hooves - hoof
knives - knife
leaves - leaf
lives - life
loaves - loaf
scarves - scarf
selves - self
sheaves - sheaf
shelves - shelf
staves - staff
thieves - thief
wives - wife
wolves - wolf
feet - foot
geese - goose
lice - louse
dice - die
men - man
mice - mouse
teeth - tooth
women - woman
people - person
brethren - brother
children - child
oxen - ox
algae - alga
alumnae - alumna
amoebae - amoeba
antennae - antenna
coronae - corona
faunae - fauna
florae - flora
formulae - formula
larvae - larva
nebulae - nebula
novae - nova
placentae - placenta
pupae - pupa
retinae - retina
supernovae - supernova
vertebrae - vertebra
alumnus - alumni
bacillus - bacilli
cacti - cactus
foci - focus
fungi - fungus
hippopotami - hippopotamus
magi - magus
nuclei - nucleus
octopi - octopus
radii - radius
stimuli - stimulus
syllabi - syllabus
termini - terminus
thesauri - thesaurus
addenda - addendum
bacteria - bacterium
curricula - curriculum
data - datum
errata - erratum
genera - genus
media - medium
memoranda - memorandum
millenia - millenium
ova - ovum
strata - stratum
symposia - symposium
stadia - stadium
apices - apex
appendices - appendix
cervices - cervix
indices - index
matrices - matrix
vortices - vortex
analyses - analysis
axes - axis
bases - basis
crises - crisis
diagnoses - diagnosis
ellipses - ellipsis
emphases - emphasis
hypotheses - hypothesis
metamorphoses - metamorphosis
neuroses - neurosis
oases - oasis
paralyses - paralysis
parentheses - parenthesis
synopses - synopsis
syntheses - synthesis
theses - thesis
criteria - criterion
phenomena - phenomenon
automata - automaton
schemata - schema
stigmata - stigma
cherubim - cherub
seraphim - seraph
beaux - beau
tableaux - tableau

Comments

[onefishjyuufish.livejournal.com]

Would words like moose, sheep and deer count? Seeing as how they're the same when plural?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

They would for a generic list. I'm collecting them for the new root_phrase function on the Gargoyle, however, which can safely ignore auto-plurals like those. It doesn't recognize them as plurals, so it doesn't do anything to them to make them singular, which happens to be the correct action to take to make them singular. :)