English for Students

Singular Singulars and Peculiar Plurals

Beauties of English Index


Singular Singulars and Peculiar Plurals...



How singular some old words are!

I know two with no singular.

Agenda and marginalia : Both

Are always plural, 'pon my oath.

The opposite's the case to greet us

With propaganda and coitus,

Upon these never sets the sun,

And yet of each there's only one.

Phantasmagoria, likewise,

Pervades, yet never multiplies.

Strata pluralises stratum,

Ultimata and ultimatum.

Memoranda and memorandum

Candelabra and candelabrum.

Why are nostrums then not nostra?

Why speak I not then from rostra?

Thus my datum grows to data,

My erratum to errata.

Child, put this on your next agendum.

Pudenda's more than are pudendum

Medium makes media.

Criterion, criteria.

What's plural for hysteria?