Unit 3.1
Irregular Plural Nouns: Borrowings
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Introduction
Nouns refer to a person, place, thing, event or substance.
Borrowings or loanwords are some words whose origins come from other languages (source languages). So, some nouns do not follow the rules, they are irregular and their plural is formed differently.
Form
Usually borrowings have an irregular plural form.
The most commonly used are:
| SINGULAR | PLURAL |
|---|---|
| Cactus | Cacti / cactuses |
| Datum | Data |
| Fungus | Fungi |
| Index | Indices |
| Medium | Media |
| Oasis | Oases |
| Thesis | Theses |
Example
- There are so many cacti in their garden!
- I lost my SD memory card and all my data.
- There are many types of edible fungi.
- The law of rational indices seems to be very complicated.
- The event received widespread media coverage.
- Oases are home to many animals.
- We had to read the 95 theses by Martin Luther King.
Use
We use borrowings nouns as normal nouns.
We just have to remember that their plurals are irregular.
Summary
Borrowings or loanwords are words whose origins are from other languages. Usually borrowings have an irregular plural form.
The most commonly used are: cactus ⇒ cacti, datum ⇒ data, fungus ⇒ fungi, index ⇒ indices, medium ⇒ media, oasis ⇒ oases, thesis ⇒ theses.
For example:
— “A fungus.” ⇒ “Three fungi.” / “Three funguses.”
— “There is only one cactus in my balcony.” ⇒ “There are six cacti in my balcony.”
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.
Exercises
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