{"id":1697,"date":"2013-11-16T15:55:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T15:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/?page_id=1697"},"modified":"2013-11-17T17:02:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T17:02:31","slug":"some-irregular-plurals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/?page_id=1697","title":{"rendered":"Some irregular plurals"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>calf elf *dwarf knife half *handkerchief *hoof leaf life loaf *scarf self sheaf shelf wife wolf<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What do the words in the list above have in common? They all have irregular plural forms. The final &lt;f&gt; is replaced by &lt;ves&gt; and this ending is pronounced <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">vz<\/span>. The words marked with * have regular plurals for some speakers.<\/p>\n<p>Notice that this applies <em>only<\/em> to the plural form. \u00a0The possessive form with added &lt;&#8216;s&gt; is perfectly regular. \u00a0So for example <em>wife<\/em> &#8211; <em>wife&#8217;s\u00a0<\/em>(<span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">wa\u026afs<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Not <em>all<\/em> nouns which end in &lt;f&gt; are irregular. \u00a0Here are some which simply add &lt;s&gt; and this is of course pronounced <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">s<\/span>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>chief grief gulf oaf proof safe serf strife<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>By the way, <em>calf<\/em> and <em>half<\/em> have a silent &lt;l&gt;. \u00a0<em>Elf<\/em>, <em>self<\/em>, <em>shelf<\/em> and <em>wolf<\/em> do not.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the word <em>roofs <\/em> can be pronounced either <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">ru\u02d0fs<\/span> or <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">ru\u02d0vz<\/span>, but it is not spelled &lt;rooves&gt;\u01c3<\/p>\n<p>Update: Alex Rotatori informs me that the spelling &lt;rooves&gt; is given by some dictionaries. \u00a0I certainly wouldn&#8217;t recommend it though.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>2013_11_16<br \/>\nUpdated: 2013_11_17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>calf elf *dwarf knife half *handkerchief *hoof leaf life loaf *scarf self sheaf shelf wife wolf What do the words in the list above have in common? They all have irregular plural forms. The final &lt;f&gt; is replaced by &lt;ves&gt; and this ending is pronounced vz. The words marked with * have regular plurals for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":100,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1697"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1697\/revisions\/1707"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogjam.name\/EPTips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}