The French for an eye is "un oeiul" but the plural is "les yeux": I can't think of any other instance, either in English or any other language, where a plural bears absolutely no similarity to the singular. Can anyone else? | Notes and Queries (2024)

The French for an eye is "un oeiul" but the plural is "les yeux": I can't think of any other instance, either in English or any other language, where a plural bears absolutely no similarity to the singular. Can anyone else?

Sean Doherty, Derry Ireland

• As per the French example, mouse and mice share only two letters in common. nb The French pronunciations of eye and eyes are similar.

  Peter Brooke, By Kinmuck Scotland

• This is known as suppletion, and is fairly common in English with verb changes (e.g. I go but I went). A commonly cited plural example is the Russian for person (chelovek singular --> lyudi plural). The closest we get in English is probably person --> people (but of course both persons and peoples are used).

  Jack Wright, London UK

• In Mongolia horses play a very important part in rural society. However, the general Mongolian word for horse is muur the plural is aduu.

  Richard Young, Newport Wales

• There is another discussion (in French)on this topic:http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php/t-541693.htmlIt looks as if etymology shows that both word forms (oeil/yeux) have the same origin, so should be seen as one word. Pronunciation, by the way, is much closer than writing suggests, just a change of position of the "y"-sound. As to the question: Russian "rebyonok" (child) and "dyeti" (children) springs to mind, although both words do have a plural/singular form, yet with a different meaning or out of use.

  R. Wittig, Freiberg Germany

  See Also

  Irregular Plural Nouns—Learn Patterns to Remember the Tricky OnesEmojiology: 😏 Smirking FaceWhat is the opposite of enough?Plural Noun - Rules, Types and Examples

• In addition to my earlier answer, Russian "chelovek" (man, as human) and "lyudi" (men, people) might be even clearer, as there is no plural form for the former word. And this hands the question back to English native speakers: what is the singular of "people" (as humans)?

  R. Wittig, Freiberg Germany

• The Gaelic Irish for "a woman" is "bean" (pronounced 'ban') while the Gaelic for "women" is "mná" (pronounced 'm'naw')

  Vincent O'Connor, Kilfinane Ireland

• In Czech, person is 'clovek' and people is 'lide'.

  Chris Bleakley, Prague Czech Republic

• Anyone who has two of a brother and a sister has siblings, although brother, sister and sibling can all be pluralised.

  John co*ckling, Halesowen, England

• R Witting: 'people' is already singular. It's plural form is 'peoples'. Though the singular 'people' is usually used as the plural to 'person'.John co*ckling: Come again??? You don't have to have two brothers/sisters to have a sibling.

  Jake Hamble, St Albans UK

• What about pronouns? I/we, it/they, etc.

  Jonathan, London UK

  See Also

  Scrabble Dictionary - Most Trusted Dictionary and Scrabble Word Finder

• I am reminded of Latin irregular verbs, such as "fero, ferre, tuli, latum" - to bear - which is an amalgamation of two separate verbs which had become obsolete by the time of "classical" Latin. Schoolboys of my father's generation made up their own, such as "piggo, hoggere, swini, gruntum"

  Paul Thompson, Perth Scotland

• Jake Hamble: ¨People¨ is not only singular, it is more commonly used as a plural. We don't say ¨One people, two peoples¨ when referring to individuals, do we?

  Michaela Aylott, Cocentaina, Spain

• The use of 'people' as a singular is a totalitarian gramatical oddity. Neo-Nazis love to say "the German people is angry". I believe the Soviet Union used to do something simiar.

  Quentin Langley, Woking UK

• There are many examples in Irish. bean / mná was mentioned above (woman /women). Another common example is cara / cairde (friend /friends)

  Richard Thompson, Allerod Denmark

• Kine and cattle are both plural of cow/ox

  Phil Barker, Edinburgh, Scotland

• Just to keep it in the area of the face, try the English "tooth" and "teeth." If you are honest about how you really say them, besides the vowels, you will hear a very slight difference between the two initials T's and a more marked difference between the the sound of the final TH's. The placement of the tongue for the vowels colors the sounds of the consonants, too.

  Greg "Rusty" Smith, Trenton, New Jersey USA

• Talking of teeth and tooth. Why isn't a toothbrush called a teethbrush, as it is typically used to clean all your teeth, not just one?

  Martin Gould, Enfield, England

• The phrase 'The German people is angry' is not an expression of totalitarian grammar but rather a logical principle of German grammar. 'The people' (das Volk)is grammatically speaking a singular noun and therefore requires a singular verb. Of course in a different context 'the people' can be translated as 'die Leute' which is a plural noun for a group of people. English is unique amongst European languages for mixing singular nouns and plural verb forms.

  Holger Kroll, Cardiff, UK

• This happens in ancient Greek because of consonant clusters. When either chi (ch) or kappa (k) comes directly before a sigma (s), the two merge to become a xi (x). In the case of chi and sigma merging, it causes the former to lose its aspiration, which can trigger some strange-looking phenomena. Thrix (theta-rho-iota-xi) comes from thrich-s, but when the ending is changed from nominative ‘-s’ to genitive ‘-os’, the aspiration of the chi returns. This then causes the aspiration on the theta at the beginning of the word to be lost, making it trichos (tau-rho-iota-chi-omikron-sigma). Greek cannot tolerate aspirated consonants in consecutive syllables, and it is always the first of the two that changes. (This makes finding such words in a dictionary a nightmare.) The theory is called Wassermann's Law.

  Helen Young, Bristol, England

• What is the singular of the (Greek in origin) 'hoi polloi'?

  Titos Christodouloou, London Greater LONDON

• In French, the F in 'oeuf' (egg) is pronounced. The plural adds an S, 'oeufs', but neither the F nor the S is pronounced, 'oeu..'. The singular and plural of 'bone' in French are identical, 'os', but when spoken one is 'oss' the plural is 'oh'. Yes this happens in English too, with words like 'read' and 'read'

  William Drake, Grandvaux, Switzerland