Plurals Archives | GRAMMARIST

Plural of Platypus – Platypuses or Platypi?

Ah, the platypus! This fascinatingly kooky creature has been the subject of scientific inquiry and admiration for decades. With its unique mix of mammalian, reptilian, and avian traits, the platypus is hands down one of a kind. But here’s a good question that might stump you. What is the plural of platypus? Platypuses? Platypi? Something else altogether? Let’s find out! What Is a Platypus? Before we dive into the plural of platypus, let’s take a moment to appreciate what makes …

Amends vs amends

by Grammarist

One form of amends is the third person present tense of the verb amend, which means to alter or improve something, especially a formal document. It is often used when people are speaking to say that they corrected previously given information, or changes something they said earlier. Another form of amends is a plural noun usually found in the phrase make amends. This form of amends means a recompense or a compensation for a loss or injury. One can make an offer of amends. Note that …

Beside or besides

by Grammarist

Beside can mean to literally be on the side of something or it can be used to show two things are being compared to one another. And confusingly, it can be a synonym for besides; however, besides is not a synonym for beside. Besides can be used as a synonym for except (e.g., nothing besides that lamp), or the words together with (e.g., besides being beautiful, the car was reasonably priced). Several phrases use the term beside, not besides, such as beside oneself and beside the point. The distinction between the …

If need be or if needs be

by Grammarist

If need be is an idiom which means if the need manifests. It became an idiom when conditional phrases (beginning with if) stopped requiring the subjunctive. Now we say “if it is right”, not “if it be right”. It is used most often as a modifying phrase and does not require commas unless needed for clarity, which may often be the case. Most dictionaries, if they list it as an idiom at all, list the singular. Therefore, in writing the singular form …

Hope or hopes

by Grammarist

Hope can be a verb or a noun. As a verb, it means to desire or believe something to be true or to come to pass. As a noun it is the feeling of desiring or believing something to be true or to come to pass. The noun form may be countable or uncountable. To lose all hope is subtly different than people losing their hopes and dreams. One is the mass idea of losing any chance of hoping, and the other is losing …

Schema or schematic

by Grammarist

A schema is a plan or an outline that is also a diagram. It is pronounced (skee ma). The plural may be made by either schemas or schemata. Note, that schemata, while uncommon, is often misused as a singular form, but it is in fact plural. There are many derivatives of schema, including schematic. Schematic, pronounced (skee maa tick), may be used as an adjective or noun. Because schema dates from around 1700 and schematic from the 1930s, our guess is that the noun form of schematic came from the pervasive misuse of the adjective. That is …

Passerbys or passersby

by Grammarist

A passerby is literally someone who passes by something. Usually it is referenced to people who are walking outside of a store as they go on to somewhere else. This term does not require the use of a hyphen. The correct plural is passersby. Passerbys is an incorrect formation. However, it occurs once out of every 25 times the correct form is used. This popularity has increased dramatically over the last decade. This suggests that people are loosening their idea of a correct form …

Reindeer or caribou

by Grammarist

A reindeer is a species of deer which live in the northern part of the earth. Caribou is a synonym for reindeer and is especially used for those which live on the North American continent. Reindeer can be found on nearly every northern continent and much further south than the North Pole. In 1823 reindeer were paired with St. Nicholas and with the song about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, they have been a permanent fixture in the Christmas holiday celebrations in the Western world. Interestingly, both reindeer and caribou have the same plural …

Lots of vs a lot of

by Grammarist

Both lots and a lot of are nouns for amounts of things or quantifiers. They are used when the amount of something is known to be large, but an exact counting isn’t necessary. Both are used in more informal speech and writing. More formal word choice would include many or much. Side note: A lot of is sometimes spelled alot, which is incorrect. Some say that lots is the plural form of a lot of. While that may have been the case in the beginning, now they are more like synonyms, with lots being even slightly more …

Lifetime or life time

by Grammarist

Lifetime is one word which means the total time of a being’s life from the time it is born until it dies. It can also be used to mean a really long amount of time. Lifetime can be used as an adjective or noun. Though not listed in the dictionary, when it is a noun the plural is lifetimes. One reason it is not recognized may be the fact that no living thing can have two lifetimes, and when speaking about two person’s individual …

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