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Unusual Plurals

Scientific  and  technical  essays  use  lots of  nouns derived from Greek and Latin :

Datum/data

Medium/media

Basis/bases

Crisis/crises

Matrix/ matrices

Phenomenon/phenomena

Criterion  /  criteria

Nowadays ,however,  it  is  not  uncommon to   meet  anglicised  plurals  but ,to be on a safer ground, it is  better  to stick to the traditional form.

 In nouns  followed by a preposition or a  verb,  the noun turns into the plural:

Lady-in-waiting/ladies-in-waiting

Wife-to-be   / wives-to-be

Brother-in.law/ brothers-in-law

 Nouns  coming  from  ancient  German dialects have irregular  forms:

Ox/oxen

Child/children

Foot/ feet

Die /dice

Louse/lice

Woman/ women

Man/ men

Those imported from other languages  are very few and  can  be easily  memorised .

Beau/beaux

Cul de sac / culs de sac 

Graffito/ graffiti

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English exercise "Unusual Plurals" created by carlabice47 with The test builder. [More lessons & exercises from carlabice47]
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1. There were some quietly grazing the grass . (ox)

2. Elisabeth I had many coming from ancient, noble families . (lady-in-waiting)

3. The water cycle manifests itself through various , such as clouds, rain, hail and snow. (phenomenon)

4. Mass can destroy or exalt famous people in less than no time .(medium)

5. The ' Stratagem is a famous comedy by G. Farquhar . (Beau)

6. What want is a brilliant comedy with Mel Gibson and Marisa Tomei . (woman)

7. Here are the concerning the last 24 months' sales . (datum)

8. American is a 1973 cult movie directed by George Lucas . (graffito)

9. After a long disease, Philip is finally on his again. (foot)

10. Sean has two who both work at Harvard University . (brother-in-law)