Page 109 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

8.6.1 PLURALS OF SOME GREEK AND LATIN WORDS

Some nouns, frequently of Greek origin, that end in -is are made plural by

changing the -is to -es.

■ ■ ■ ■ axis axes analysis analyses antithesis antitheses basis bases
■ ■ ■ ■ crisis crises diagnosis diagnoses ellipsis ellipses emphasis

■ ■ emphases hypothesis hypotheses metamorphosis

■ ■ ■ metamorphoses neurosis neuroses oasis oases paralysis
■ ■ ■ paralyses parenthesis parentheses synthesis syntheses thesis

theses Several Latin-originating nouns ending in -ix are pluralized with -

ices or in the English way.

■ ■ appendix appendices (in books), appendixes (in bodies) helix
■ helices index indexes (most uses), indices (usually only in statistics

■ or finance) matrix matrices The words of Latin and Greek origin that

take the plural form of their original language are exceptions because,
usually, when words are borrowed from one language to another, they use

the plural constructions of the new language.
For example, English has borrowed panini from Italian. It’s an Italian plural

noun for a flattened sandwich. But in English, we treat it as a singular and add -s
to the end to make it plural: paninis. We do the same thing with zucchini and

ravioli.

The correct plural of octopus is octopuses, not octopi. It comes from Greek,
not Latin, so if it weren’t already thoroughly anglicized, the plural would be

octopodes, anyway.

8.6.2 WORDS ENDING IN O

Following are some words ending in -o that are pluralized by added -es, instead
of just -s, as is usually the case.

■ ■ ■ ■ echo echoes embargo embargoes hero heroes potato

■ ■ ■