English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2018)

Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by YeGoblynQueenne on Sunday March 28, 2021 @05:52AM (#26609115)

>> But not Greek plurals, so it's octopuses, not octopodes.

With the exception of (one) phenomenon, (many) phenomena, hopefully?

Also, now that I think of it: pegasus/pegasi, prolegomenon/ prolegomena, lemma/ lemmata, schema/ schemata, etc etc. There's one ending in -omenon that I keep forgetting...

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Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by michaelt on Sunday March 28, 2021 @07:39AM (#26609491)

As far as I can tell, the English rule is "sometimes we take the loanword's pluralisation, sometimes we don't, just memorise every single case and don't worry if you get it wrong sometimes"

For example, Samurai and Kimono are both loan words - but we import the pluralisation of Samurai (Seven Samurai) [1] whereas Kimono pluralises with an s on the end (Seven Kimonos) [2].

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/samurai [2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kimono

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Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by blackshaw on Monday March 29, 2021 @08:12AM (#26620425)

"Criterion/criteria"

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Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by YeGoblynQueenne on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @04:39AM (#26644853)

Thank you! Yeah, that's the one I keep forgetting, though it doesn't end in "omenon".

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Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by blackshaw on Thursday April 01, 2021 @08:32AM (#26659631)

Another one I just remembered: "automaton/automata".

This site lets you search for English words by suffix, and the only words it can find ending in "-omenon" are "phenomenon" and... "superphenomon". What a phenomenal result.

https://www.litscape.com/word_tools/ends_with.php

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