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by donovan reynolds. on August 6th, 2006

donovan reynolds.

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If the plural of "goose" is "geese", then why don't we say the plural of "moose" as "meese"? Also, with hippopotamus, why isn't that hippopotami? Cactus is cacti.

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  • by Darryl61 on August 7th, 2006

    Darryl61

    A word's origin determines it's plural form, not it's spelling. Moose and goose would not necessarily have the same plurals. Also, according to Webster's, the accepted plural of hippopotamus IS hippopotami! :)

    Comments

    • Yep, Darryl's 100% correct!

      Carmella

      by Carmella on August 7th, 2006

    • Perhaps it would be useful to change "it's" to the correct form "its." Remember that IT, HE, and SHE are pronouns and follow different rules in forming the possessive. ITS indicates possession of or relationship to. IT'S indicates a contracted form of IT IS.

      Consider a word like OCTOPUS, which is Greek in origin and means "eight feet." It has 3 legitimate plural forms: OCTOPODES, OCTOPI, and OCTOPUSES, depending on whether one is accustomed to using the Greek, Latin, or English manner of forming a plural for this word. The Greek is formal, the Latin is affected, and the English is conversational.

      Sister Scrounge

      by Sister Scrounge on March 31st, 2011

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