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Some people extend this use of the apostrophe to other cases, such as plurals of numbers written in figures (e.g. "1990's"), words used as terms (e.g. "his writing uses a lot of but's"). However others prefer to avoid this method (which can lead to confusion with the possessive -'s ), and write 1990s , buts ; this is the style recommended by ...
In the case of plurals marked by vowel mutation, some varieties may double mark the plural (e.g., feets). Regularization of plural marking occurs in several Englishes, including African-American English. [16] Traditional grammars suggest that English nouns can also take genitive case endings, as in the –'s in the cat's paws.
Plurals and verb forms almost always follow even though not listed here: "analyses/analyzes", "analysed/analyzed" etc. (but note "analysis" is universal). Some usages identified as American English are common in British English; e.g., disk for disc. A few listed words are more different words than different spellings: "aeroplane/airplane", "mum ...
Demonyms ending in -ese are the same in the singular and plural forms. The ending -man has feminine equivalent -woman (e.g. an Irishman and a Scotswoman). The French terminations -ois / ais serve as both the singular and plural masculine; adding 'e' (-oise / aise) makes them singular feminine; 'es' (-oises / aises) makes them plural
-′tje for words ending in -y and for abbreviations: baby → baby'tje, cd → cd'tje, A4 → A4'tje-etje for words ending in -b, -l, -m, -n, -ng or -r preceded by a "short" (lax) vowel: bal → balletje (ball), kam → kammetje (comb), ding → dingetje (thing), kar → karretje (cart). Note that except for the ending -ng the final consonant ...
Most Prescriptivists consider these forms incorrect, but descriptivists may simply describe them as a natural evolution of language; some prescriptivists do consider some such forms correct (e.g. octopi as the plural of octopus being analogous to polypi as the plural of polypus). Some English words of Latin origin do not commonly take the Latin ...
List of English homographs; List of English words with disputed usage; List of English–Spanish interlingual homographs; List of ethnic slurs; List of generic and genericized trademarks; List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English; List of self-contradicting words in English; Lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year; Most common ...
English nouns are not marked for case as they are in some languages, but they have possessive forms, through the addition of -'s (as in John's, children's) or just an apostrophe (with no change in pronunciation) in the case of -[e]s plurals (the dogs' owners) and sometimes other words ending with -s (Jesus' love).