Creators Syndicate on MSN

When Words End in 'O,' Their Plurals Spell Woe

When Vice President Dan Quayle "corrected" a student's spelling of "potato" to "potatoe" back in 1992, people laughed. But some of us might have trouble spelling its plural form. Is it "potatos" or ...
BBC

How to spell plural nouns

A noun is a word used to identify something.There are a lot of nouns.There are many patterns to look out for when you turn a noun into a plural noun.Let’s look at a few of these patterns. In some ...
Los Angeles Times

A Word, Please: Heed this holiday advice on plural names and apostrophes

Every year in this column, I give tips for how to avoid the most common writing mistakes in holiday greetings and invitations. And every year, I’m reminded of just how influential I’m not as people ...
Los Angeles Times

A Word, Please: A simple rule for nouns that are singular and plural at the same time

The couple is going to purchase the house? Or the couple are going to purchase the house? Even after all my years of editing, I can still get tripped up trying to make verbs agree with collective ...
THE WEEK

11 nouns that only have a plural form

Of all the grammar concepts we have, "plural" seems to be one of the most straightforward. You got one thing? It's singular. Got more than one thing? It's plural. But alas, language is always less ...