One Mouse, Two Mice, One House, Two Hice. Quiz

Answer: Opera

From the Latin, opus means work, and the plural is opera. Opera has evolved as a word on its own and is frequently pluralised by adding an s. Opera in Latin is pronounced something like the name Oprah.

Also in use are such words as opuses and opi, although they are not 'official'
plurals. Language changes so much and so quickly that it is a major opus to keep dictionaries updated.

Answer: Genera

This is from Latin. The classification hierarchy, in descending order of specificity, is: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (and occasionally sub-species). For example, the larch is classified thusly: Plantae, Pinophyte, Pinopsida, Pinales,Pinaceae, Larix, 10-14 types.

For humans it runs: Animalia, chordata, mammalia, Primates, Sub-order Haplorhini, hominidae, homo, h. sapiens.

Answer: Genii

Geniuses is also an accepted form of the plural for genius. It just makes more sense in common usage as the plural, since many do not know the word or don't know how to pronounce it. It's JEAN-ee-eye.

Answer: Moose

Many hooved animals, usually those who herd together, have no change from singular to plural. The old style plural for cow was kine, but cows is the accepted plural now.

Some other words, like cannon, fish and grass do not have a change in the plural unless there are more than one type of them. There are several types of grass and of grasses. A group of the same type of fish is fish, but if it's a mixed group including other types of fish, then it becomes fishes. Most people use fish or fishes arbitrarily, so usage changes. Cannon may take s for the plural or not, or use cannonry for a battery of cannons or cannon fire.

Of course, usage dictates changes in vocabulary, so some usage falls out of favor, becomes obsolete or simply old-fashioned.

Answer: Radii

RAY-dee-eye. Double the radius gives you the diameter of a circle.

Syllabus works the same way; more than one are syllabi. In the original Latin, some words had gender. So an alumnus who was male became alumni in plural, whereas the female singular is alumna, the plural alumnae. A group of mixed genders is usually referred to as alumni.

Answer: Appendices

Crisis becomes crises in the plural. But medium becomes media (morphed into a singular word by common usage at times). Diagnosis' plural is diagnoses, and the e is pronounced long in these plurals, so it's di-ag-NO-CEES. Appendixes is often used when speaking of the body organ in plural.

Answer: Stockings

Trousers, pliers, doldrums, glasses (when referring to spectacles or eye glasses), alms, amends, and many others carry that S around with them most, if not all, of the the time! This usually applies to nouns alone.

Stocking is used in the singular, for the foot covering, as in, "She put her nylons on, one stocking at a time." - pantyhose was developed later, but somehow never had the allure of the old garter belt to hold the tops of the stockings.

Answer: Graffito

The artist "Banksy" is a popular British 'street artist' who keeps his identity secret. Copies of his work may be found for sale online. Graffiti refers to the genre as well as the plural. Similarly, papparazzi is seldom used in the singular (paparazzo), but has become a well known word around the globe, as it is more indicative than other words (media, photographers, press, etc) of the sometimes frenzied mood of the mob following a hot news item, person or event. The root of the word graffito is from the Italian 'graffiato', indicating something scratched onto a surface, as in multi layered etchings.

Graffiti have been around for ages. Cavemen painted on their walls. In fact pictographs probably existed before language in many areas. Many countries have relics of ancient graffiti. Residents of Italy were especially fond of painting ceilings, walls, and other inanimate objects. It was used by the populace then, as it is now, to express feelings of love, hate, social attitudes and bawdy lyrics.

Found in Roman ruins, the phrase "Quisquis amat, veniat....", translated as "Whoever loves, go to hell", was written by some jilted lover who writes on to say that he would like to tear Venus apart - the goddess, not the planet.

Answer: Mothers-in-law

The same applies to brother, sister and people in general. Attorneys-at-law is another example of adding the S to the person rather than the status. I had mothers-in-law because I was married two times. I reserve comment on the first, but the second was a very sweet and charming southern lady who made excellent fried chicken and biscuits.

She and the family lived near Birmingham, Alabama.

Answer: Schemata

Schema is used in many ways, but is basically a plan, arrangement, ordering of subjects into little boxes. In psychology it sometimes refers to the way people compartmentalise things. If some unknown person or thing disrupts their schema, people tend to back off, criticise or ignore, or possibly to form a new cubicle for 'weird stuff'. My Dad was from 'the old country', and had his schema firmly organised; it was too painful for him to include rock and roll into his compartment for 'music'. To him it was garbage.

In the plural, focus becomes foci; tableau becmoes tableaux (a borrowed French word that takes a French plural); criterion becomes criteria; fungus becomes fungi; stratum becomes strati; nucleus becomes nuclei. Usually if the word is a Latin derivative, the -us singular form ends up having a vowel at the end. If a French derivative, often the eau ending takes an X in the plural. Eau, the French word for water, becomes eaux.