Confusing plurals

In this episode, the fourth of this series, I’m looking at some words that have singular and plural forms that are very different. These lead to a lot of confusion as we’ll see.

I also want to look at the way that English is evolving in some very strange and apparently senseless ways!

Personal note: I notice I started preparing this show in 2019; unfortunately, COVID messed up my productivity for the next two years, but I hope I can now begin to be productive again!

Long notes

I have provided detailed notes as usual for this episode, and these can be viewed by following the full notes link.

Links

Plural of thesis:

Grammar Monster

This link has some good advice for dealing with weird plurals, though some you just have to remember, there are no rules!

Irregular plurals which end with "ae" (or "æ"):

Wiktionary

This is a list of these plurals, 159 of them at the time of writing. Many of these are obsolete however.

The “is is” problem:

StackExchange: Why do some people say “the reason is is that,” with “is” twice in a row?

GrammarBook.com: What Is-Is Is, Is Exasperating

Wikipedia article on the Double Copula

“Honing in”:

Merriam-Webster: hone in

Me Ears Are Alight old British advertisement

Previous episodes in this series:

Battling with English - part 1

Battling with English - part 2

Battling with English - part 3