Quote:
Originally Posted by FlorenceArt
In French we have a simple rule: any word imported from a foreign language becomes a French words, and follows French rules for forming a plural (just add an s at the end). Therefore, the plural of scénario is scénarios. Simple. Though of course there are always people trying to look clever by using scenarii. Also note the accent, which I don't suppose exists in the original language (Italian I assume).
Seems much simpler and practical to me. How are we supposed to know and apply the grammatical rules of all the languages we borrow from? And, as Harry's example shows, how are we even supposed to know which language we're borrowing from?
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English often permits both, Florence, eg "optopuses" is a perfectly acceptable plural for "octopus". There are some words, though, that are conventionally spelled with a Latin plural - eg, the plural of "radius" is always "radii", not "radiuses". On the other hand, the plural of "index" can be either "indexes" or "indices", and "forum" can be either "forums" or "fora".
The problem is that most English speakers are familiar with the idea that words ending is "-us" have plurals in "-i", and sometimes apply it wrongly, as in this case. Another one you often see on the internet is the horrible "virii" as a fake plural for "virus". Not only does it seem to have gained an extra "i" from some mysterious source, but the Latin word "virus" (which means "poison") doesn't actually have a plural form, so the only "correct" English plural is the normal "viruses".