The Plural of Genus and Other Irregular Plurals

A genus is a group of objects that have similar characteristics. You may be most familiar with the word genus from biology class, as it refers to the subdivision in the classification of organisms. If you want to refer to more than one genus, you can use a few forms. Both genera and genuses are correct, although genera is best for academic writing. Note: You pronounce genera as JEN - er - uh. Awkward Plurals Pluralizing words is not something you stress about when preparing to write a paper. You just add an â€Å"s† or maybe an â€Å"es,† right? Well, sometimes it is not that easy. As you write, you may come across a word that you just do not know how to make plural. There are many words that just do not fit into our standard idea of making a singular word into a plural one. These kinds of nouns are called irregular plural nouns.   Irregular plural nouns can take many forms. Some of them change just the last few letters. Some change vowels in the middle of the word. Some nouns do not even change at all. There is not an easy trick to remember most of them, you just have to learn and memorize them. Below we will look at some commonly confused plural forms of words. There are some words or phrases that can be a bit tricky as well: Attorney general to attorneys generalPasserby to passersbySister in law to sisters in lawCoat of arms to coats of arms Plurals That Take No Change Some words do not have different forms when singular or plural. For example: PantsDeerCorpsFishSheepOffspringShrimpMooseScissors Words That Add S Some words that end in â€Å"o† can either just have an â€Å"s† or an â€Å"es† added to the end: Potato to potatoesMemo to memosHero to heroesVolcano to volcanoesTomato to tomatoes Words That Take an I Next are some words that end in â€Å"i† when pluralized. These words usually come from Latin or other languages. Here are some examples that you may encounter in your writing: Syllabus becomes syllabiFungus becomes fungiNucleus becomes nucleiRadius becomes radiiAlumnus becomes alumniStimulus becomes stimuliCactus to cactiFocus to foci Words That Change Completely Then, of course, there are words that just change. Some of these are Latin or Greek based as well: Die to diceMillennium to millenniaBacterium to bacteriaCriterion to criteriaCurriculum to curriculaParenthesis to parentheses  Emphasis to emphasesThesis to thesesAppendix to appendicesAnalysis to analyses  Synopsis to synopsesGenus to generaOx to oxenHypothesis to hypotheses   Words That Replace F With V Sometimes if a word ends in â€Å"f† or an â€Å"f† sound, we replace it with a â€Å"v† before adding the â€Å"es†: Wife to wivesCalf to calvesLife to livesThief to thievesLeaf to leavesSelf to selvesKnife to knivesElf to elvesShelf to shelvesWolf to wolves Words That Change a Vowel Sound Another strange way we can change a singular word to plural is by changing the internal vowel sound. Some of these are: Man to menWoman to womenMouse to miceFoot to feetTooth to teethGoose to GeeseLouse to lice