Talk:English plurals

(Panty)hose

The Wiktionary entries indicate that hose is uncountable (for 2. A stocking-like garment worn on the legs; pantyhose) while pantyhose or its synonym tights are plural only.

Yet, Collins Concise English Dictionary shows both "hose, hosen" as the plural forms of hose, and seems to imply that it's also a synonym of hosiery ("stockings, socks, and tights collectively").

According to Microsoft® Encarta® 2009, (panty)hose is a plural noun itself as is tights or oats (the e and unlike, say, "sheep (plural sheep)" or hose in its meaning of "flexible tube", which shows the usual plural hoses.

All this information is at odds, so it's impossible to know what pair "hose - hosen" the article is referrring to. --Backinstadiums (talk) 19:57, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

the plural of the name of the letter e is ees; the plural of the letter itself is rendered E's, Es, e's, or es.

According to the entry of letter e; therefore, is this then a regular plural formed from -es? --Backinstadiums (talk) 13:06, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

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Alumni and Alumnae

The article states that 'alumni' in anglicized pronunciation is the same as 'alumnae' in "Italianate" pronunciation. This is not true. It is in classical, not Italianate, Latin that "alumnae" would sound the same as English "Alumni". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.243.220.61 (talk) 04:39, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

Remove "minister-president"?

Following this RM, Wikipedia has changed "ministers-president" to "minister-presidents" across all articles and categories. It seems unnecessary and unhelpful, therefore, to include "minister-president" in the list of words where the first word in the compound usually pluralizes. StAnselm (talk) 16:41, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

I'm going ahead and removing it. StAnselm (talk) 16:08, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Add a table of contents?

I wonder if a table of contents would be useful to other people. I found this page and would have liked to link to the section on nouns ending with -y, for a colleague's benefit, but there's no ToC, and the page is semi-locked so I can't add one myself although, having looked at other, similar pages, it may make this page inconsistent with others in the series, which is why I brought it up here.

Cosimo193 (talk) 11:16, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

Get ready for tripple plural

feetsies = foot + ablaut + s + plural diminutive ~2026-86903-5 (talk) 03:16, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

Is negative one plural-making?

There seems to be some disagreement online (I jut googled) on if -1 is plural-making. For instance, is it "the temperature is negative one degrees" or "the temperature is negative one degree"? Could be good to treat on this page — if one can find an RS. Dingolover6969 (talk) 00:15, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

@Dingolover6969: In my English variant of English, "negative one degree[s]" will get a response of incomprehension.

If it's exactly one degree above or below freezing it's singular; I say "one degree" and "minus one degree" for 1 °C and −1 °C respectively.

Quantities below −1, above +1, and exactly zero are plural; so ”minus one point one degrees", "zero degrees" and "three degrees" for −1.1 °C, −0 °C and 3 °C.

For values within the two ranges −1–0 and 0–+1 it's less clear and both singular and plural are in use (e.g. minus 0.5 degree and minus 0.5 degrees).

Other speakers of English have different preferences and this delightful paper has details and references. Bazza 7 (talk) 09:34, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

Nice! That is a good paper. Dingolover6969 (talk) 19:45, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

Perhaps the special case of "negative/minus one" should be thoroughly treated in the article. As written the article makes no reference to any dialectal discrepancies on this matter. I personally would only ever use the singular for "one", not "negative one" or for any fractions. In fact, I wouldn't even use a singular for numbers which are technically equivalent to 1; i.e. "one over one", "one out of one", "point nine repeating", "two minus one" would all condition the plural in my idiolect. That paper is rather old—I think its plausible that patterns of usage have shifted in the last 23 years. I would love to see a newer source addressing this issue. Definitelytofu (talk) 13:47, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

what is deceitful in "dated my wife"?

"deceits as a series of instances of deceitful behaviour (lied on income tax, dated my wife)" Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 02:55, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

@Mateusz Konieczny See definition 10 in the Collins dictionary. Bazza 7 (talk) 15:08, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

@Bazza 7: Yes, I am aware what "dating" means. Given that dating resulted in marriage, it is unclear what was supposed to be deceitful here? (in theory it could be but nothing indicates it) Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 15:07, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

@Mateusz Konieczny: I had read your example "dating my wife" as something somebody whose wife was being dated by a third person might say.

"I think X is one of the most deceitful people I know. Not only have I discovered that he's lied to the tax authorities, he's also been dating my wife," complained Y.

However, your standalone quotation, with no other context, is not at all clear. Bazza 7 (talk) 16:49, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

I don't see how that helps, but in any case it's still a terrible example. StAnselm (talk) 15:54, 5 June 2026 (UTC)