| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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Page 240
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| Compound words, written with or without a hyphen, that consist of a noun followed by an adjective or other qualifying expression form their plurals by making the same change in the noun that is made when the noun stands alone: attorney-general, attorneys-general; daughter-in-law, daughters-in-law; man-of-war, men-of-war; heir apparent, heirs apparent; notary public, notaries public. | 1 |
| Some nouns, mainly names of birds, fishes, and mammals, have the same form in the plural as in the singular: bison, deer, moose, sheep, swine. Some words that follow this pattern, such as antelope, cod, crab, elk, fish, flounder, grouse, herring, quail, reindeer, salmon, shrimp, and trout, also have regular plurals ending in -s: antelope, antelopes; fish, fishes; salmon, salmons. Normally in such cases the unchanged plural indicates that the animal in question is being considered collectively, while the plural ending in -s is used specifically to indicate different varieties or species or kinds: We caught six fish but Half a dozen fishes inhabit the lake. By far, however, most animal names take a regular plural: dogs, cats, lions, monkeys, whales. | 2 |
| Many words indicating nationality or place of origin have the same form in the plural as in the singular: Japanese, Milanese, Swiss. | 3 |
| Similarly a few names of tribes or peoples have the same form in the plural as in the singular: Iroquois, Sioux. Many other such names have both an unchanged plural form and a regular plural form ending in -s:Apache or Apaches; Cherokee or Cherokees; Eskimo or Eskimos; Zulu or Zulus. | 4 |
| Many nouns derived from a foreign language retain their foreign plurals: (from Latin) alumna, alumnae; alumnus, alumni; bacillus, bacilli; genus, genera; series, series; species, species; (from Greek) analysis, analyses; basis, bases; crisis, crises; criterion, criteria or criterions; phenomenon, phenomena or phenomenons; (from French) adieu, adieux or adieus; beau, beaux or beaus; madame, mesdames; (from Italian) paparrazzo, paparazzi; (from Hebrew) cherub, cherubim or cherubs; kibbutz, kibbutzim. As you can see, many words of this type also have a regular plural ending in -s or -es, in which case the English plural is usually the one used in everyday speech, and the foreign plural is reserved for a technical sense or for use by a specialist: antennas (TV or radio part) or antennae (physiological structure). | 5 |
| Usage with regard to forming the plurals of letters, numbers, and abbreviations varies somewhat. In some cases you have a choice between adding -s or -’s, although the trend is increasingly to add -s alone: three As or three A’s; the ABCs or the ABC’s; the 1900s or the 1900’s; PhDs or PhD’s; several IOUs or several IOU’s. With lowercase letters, symbols, abbreviations with periods, and in cases where confusion might arise without an apostrophe, use -’s to form the plural: p’s and q’s; +’s; -’s; M.A.’s; A’s and I’s; 2’s. Mainly your goal is to be as clear as possible and avoid confusion. | 6 |
| The plural of a word being used as a word is indicated by -’s: underline all the but’s. Note that in typed or typeset copy, only the word but would appear in italics (the apostrophe and the s would be in regular type). | 7 |
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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