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What's the freakin' plural of saurus????
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 9:39 am
by Fronko
Alright, this has been tempering with me up to the point where I can't stand it no more, so pleeeease help me on this:
I've seen saurusses, sauri, saurii, saurusi and saures (and probably a hundred other versions)...
Can some experienced linguist easy my agony?????
Edit: Spelling corrected.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 9:46 am
by Redfang
If saurus was a normal latin word, the plural would be sauri. Saurus is of course derived from Dinosaurus (=Dinosaur), so I always use sauri.
Saurii is just a stupid suggestion; it's akin to making a plurla of a plural (I know a very good dutch example of this but unfortunately it does not translate to english)
saures; never seen this one, can't explain it either....
I guess that if you'd use english rules for plurals you'd end up with something like Sauruses (or maybe Saurusses), but I'm not sure about how correct that is.
Like I said, I always use sauri
R
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:01 am
by Grumbledook
isn't the plural just sauras, i am sure there are other words were the single and plural are the same
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:02 am
by Redfang
I assume you then mean Saurus instead of Sauras?
R
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:07 am
by Grumbledook
yer ;] just crawled out of bed
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:11 am
by Deathwing
Grumbledook wrote:isn't the plural just sauras, i am sure there are other words were the single and plural are the same
Sheep..fish...wake up dude..
Re: What's the freakin' plural of saurus????
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 11:21 am
by grep-v
I'm using "sauri" for english conversation (the "saurusses" was to cumbersome) and "Saurier" for german conversation.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 11:40 am
by BigD
Sauri works for me. Just gotta get the team to stop playing like a pack of Dark Elves!
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 12:31 pm
by Blackscale
Sauri is correct Latin.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 2:19 pm
by Snew
Redfang wrote:
saures; never seen this one, can't explain it either....
That's what Gollum calls them.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 3:52 pm
by wesleytj
i would say that saurus or saurii would both be correct. i usually avoid the issue entirely by pluralising a modifier after the word. AKA just say "saurus warriors" or "saurus blockers"...then it's easier to figure out.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 6:35 pm
by Mirascael
Hmmm, I'm always mixing up with representatives of the other end of the spectrum. What about bacteria or bacterium? And is the plural if virus viruses or viri? Or should I just say Virus Warriors, Virus Blockers...
By the way: Any Japanese around? Is it true that the plural of ki (tree) is kii (wood)? Or has a friend of mine made that up?
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 6:40 pm
by Agentrock
Mirascael wrote:And is the plural if virus viruses or viri?
I think it is viruses...at least I've seen it written that way in several articles.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 8:28 pm
by Zombie
Both viruses and viri are correct. Viruses is more English, while viri is more latin. In French, the plural is virus.