How good is your English?
In a recent English class discussion we talked about nouns. Like any normal English class we talked about noun types, their uses...the usual sort of recap stuff from our classes in high school.
Eventually though we got to talking about plurals. Now this can be quite the discussion when you have a grammar teacher that's been around a while... particularly one who studied Latin. Anyone who is able to read this text, right now, is able to recognize the difference between Apple and Apples. It's not complicated, the words with the S are the simple ones. In English, however (being as it is just a messed up jumble of a language) we see quite a few irregular words. Usually these words are simply borrowed from other languages, dead or alive. One such word that we discussed was "Data". Now "Data" is already a plural word; To make it singular you would simply change it to "Datum", a word so rarely used people often neglect its spelling and simply use "Data" interchangeably...
This got me thinking, how many other words have we used wrong... so I made a short list of words you may never have know existed in any other form. (Some of which have been replaced completely):
-Pendula (Multiple Pendulum)
-Curricula (I've read schools' referrences to their "Curriculums" inappropriately)
-Agendum (A single entry in your Agenda)
-Alumina (Yes, that's the composite of Aluminium)
-Atria (Imagine a building with multiple "Atriums")
-Bacterium (Just one "Bacteria")
-Gymnasia (Plural of Gymnasium)
-Referenda (Things Québec is getting sick of, although Referendums is globally accepted as the norm today)
-Minima (Almost always used as Minimums today)
-Alga (Yup, individual pond scums have their own word)
-Antennas (When talking about radios... antennae only applies to bugs)
-Cactuses (Believe it or not, in Canadian English it's preferred to cacti)
-Millenniums (It's not Millennia as so many have said before)
Of course there are many more, but this is a short and comprehensive list. I figured I would just remind you how bizarre the language we speak really is...
Cheers to those who learn English from scratch... next time a Korean asks you something and you don't quite understand, remember that you've spoken this language you're entire life, and you still don't know it all.
-D-
Eventually though we got to talking about plurals. Now this can be quite the discussion when you have a grammar teacher that's been around a while... particularly one who studied Latin. Anyone who is able to read this text, right now, is able to recognize the difference between Apple and Apples. It's not complicated, the words with the S are the simple ones. In English, however (being as it is just a messed up jumble of a language) we see quite a few irregular words. Usually these words are simply borrowed from other languages, dead or alive. One such word that we discussed was "Data". Now "Data" is already a plural word; To make it singular you would simply change it to "Datum", a word so rarely used people often neglect its spelling and simply use "Data" interchangeably...
This got me thinking, how many other words have we used wrong... so I made a short list of words you may never have know existed in any other form. (Some of which have been replaced completely):
-Pendula (Multiple Pendulum)
-Curricula (I've read schools' referrences to their "Curriculums" inappropriately)
-Agendum (A single entry in your Agenda)
-Alumina (Yes, that's the composite of Aluminium)
-Atria (Imagine a building with multiple "Atriums")
-Bacterium (Just one "Bacteria")
-Gymnasia (Plural of Gymnasium)
-Referenda (Things Québec is getting sick of, although Referendums is globally accepted as the norm today)
-Minima (Almost always used as Minimums today)
-Alga (Yup, individual pond scums have their own word)
-Antennas (When talking about radios... antennae only applies to bugs)
-Cactuses (Believe it or not, in Canadian English it's preferred to cacti)
-Millenniums (It's not Millennia as so many have said before)
Of course there are many more, but this is a short and comprehensive list. I figured I would just remind you how bizarre the language we speak really is...
Cheers to those who learn English from scratch... next time a Korean asks you something and you don't quite understand, remember that you've spoken this language you're entire life, and you still don't know it all.
-D-
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