History Main / PerplexingPlurals

-->-- '''RD Reynolds''', ''Website/WrestleCrap''

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' averts this by making the plural name of all Pokémon species, as well as "Pokémon" itself, unchanged from the singular versions. Not that this stops some people from referring to [[MemeticMutation "Pokémons" or "Pokeymans"]].

* The AllanSherman song "One Hippopotami" (a parody of "What Kind Of Fool Am I?") is half this trope and half "pair" puns.

* The plural form of ''dwarf'' [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html has been subject to some debate]]. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, ''dwarfs'' was more commonly used in most contexts, but Creator/JRRTolkien set a precedent within the {{fantasy}} genre by referring to his dwarf characters as ''dwarves''. Since then, ''dwarves'' has become the standard plural for [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame the fantasy creatures that we all know and love]] (''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and Creator/{{Disney}} being notable exceptions). On the other hand, ''dwarfs'' is still used within scientific contexts in RealLife. For example, dwarf stars and small organisms are referred to as dwarfs -- although when talking about humans with dwarfism, ''little people'' is considered more polite nowadays.

* The plural form of ''dwarf'' [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html has been subject to some debate]]. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, ''dwarfs'' was more common, but Creator/JRRTolkien set a precedent within the {{fantasy}} genre by referring to his dwarf characters as ''dwarves''. Since then, ''dwarves'' has become the standard plural for [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame the fantasy creatures that we all know and love]] (''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and Creator/{{Disney}} being notable exceptions). On the other hand, ''dwarfs'' is still used within scientific contexts in RealLife. For example, dwarf stars and small organisms are referred to as dwarfs -- although when talking about humans with dwarfism, ''little people'' is considered more polite nowadays.

* The plural form of ''dwarf'' [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html has been subject to some debate]]. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, ''dwarfs'' was the norm, but Creator/JRRTolkien set a precedent within the {{fantasy}} genre by referring to his dwarf characters as ''dwarves''. Since then, ''dwarves'' has become the standard plural for [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame the fantasy creatures that we all know and love]] (''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and Creator/{{Disney}} being notable exceptions). On the other hand, ''dwarfs'' is still used within scientific contexts in RealLife. For example, dwarf stars and small organisms are referred to as dwarfs -- although when talking about humans with dwarfism, ''little people'' is considered more polite nowadays.

-->-- RD Reynolds, ''Wrestlecrap''

...until you find yourself needing to talk about octopuses...octopus...octopi- no, [[DogLatin that's Latin]]...octopodes? Ugh, now this is going to bother me all day.[[note]]The fact that [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus#Noun all three plurals]] given in this example are considered correct doesn't help.[[/note]]

TruthInTelevision. English has borrowed rather large number of plural forms from other languages, most notably Latin (alumnus/alumni, formula/formulae), Greek (phenomenon/phenomena, stigma/stigmata), French (tableau/tableaux), while also retaining plural forms from archaic English (goose/geese, ox/oxen, cow/kine [[note]]known to trivia nerds are the only word where the plural and singular forms share no common letter[[/note]]). Related to the phenomenon of "paradigmatic gapping" in RealLife, where a grammatical form that logically should exist just...doesn't.[[labelnote:case in point]]The proverbial example in English is the verb "can", which can be used in the present or the past, but not in any other tenses. You just can't say "I will can do X", you need to use something like "will be able to" instead.[[/labelnote]]

Note: This is crucially not a trope used by {{Funny Foreigner}}s. It is confusion about a speaker's '''own language''' (and the need to stop and work it out) and usually not caused by ignorance or BookDumb (although expect a character beset by SesquipedalianLoquaciousness to be immune). See {{Pluralses}}

* There's an old Italian joke where a man doesn't know if the plural for "Belga" (a person from Belgium) is "Belghi" or "Belgi". He eventually resorts to write down "Un Belga. Anzi due!" (One Belgian. I mean, two.)

->''"Yes, Shaniqua. She was a dominatrix. Because, you know, wrestling needs dominatrixs."''
->''"Dominatrixes?"''
->''"Dominatrixi?"''
->''"Whatever."''

!!Examples

[[AC: FanWorks]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

* Since the climax of ''Literature/ThePyrates'' occurs at the aptly-named Octopus Rock, the inevitable confusion ensues. Antihero Colonel Blood uses the incorrect Latinate plural "octopi," and smarmy hero Captain Avery offers him the correct (though antiquated) Greek "octopods" or "octopodes." Largely out of contrariness, Blood elects to go with "octopussies."

** In book six, Harry Dresden figures out some of the players in the mystery, and comments that "we were dealing with a succubus. Or more than one, which for grammatical reasons I hoped was not the case." (It's Succubi by the way)

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': The [[PlotThreads B Plot]] of the episode "The Personality Kid" concerns Bobby & Cindy going ape-shit over safety. The following concerns some electrical outlets in the kitchen, which have so many extensions & multi-prongs plugged in that one is referred to as an "octopus."
-->''(Bobby hands Carol a new plug)''\\

-->'''Willow:''' OK, I got my tumbleweed, my eggs, got my chrysalises...chrysali...? My [[BuffySpeak butterfly transformer pods]].

[[AC: {{Music}}]]

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]

* Once in ''NewspaperComics/TheFarSide'', an octopus addresses a lecture hall full of his fellows--and even he can't figure out what the plural is.
--> "Fellow octopi, or octopuses...octopi?...Dang, it's hard to start a speech with this crowd."

[[AC: Radio]]

--> '''Miss Brooks''': Where's Mr. Boynton? Or should I say where are Mr. Boyntons . . . or Misters Boynton . . . where's everybody?

[[AC: TabletopGames]]
* The Tyranids in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' have the Carnifex. Good luck getting the fans to agree on a plural.
** ...[[CompletelyMissingThePoint Bad news]]?

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: Jokes[=/=]RealLife]]

* Some Russian jokes deal with the unpredictable nature of Russian plural nouns. An example from {{Wikipedia}}:
-->The genitive plural of a noun (used with a numeral to indicate five or more of something, as opposed to the dual, used for two, three, or four, see Russian nouns) is a rather unpredictable form of the Russian noun, and there are a handful of words which even native speakers have trouble producing this form of (either due to rarity or an actual lexical gap). A common example of this is kocherga (fireplace poker). The joke is set in a Soviet factory. Five pokers are to be requisitioned. The correct forms are acquired, but as they are being filled out, a debate arises: what is the genitive plural of kocherga? Is it Kocherg? Kocherieg? Kochergov?... One thing is clear: a form with the wrong genitive plural of kocherga will bring disaster from the typically-pedantic bureaucrats. Finally, an old janitor overhears the commotion, and tells them to send in two separate requisitions: one for two kochergi and another for three kochergi. In some versions, they send in a request for 4 kochergi and one extra to find out the correct word, only to receive back "here are your 4 kochergi and one extra."
* There's an old Italian joke where a man doesn't know if the plural for "Belga" (a person from Belgium) is "Belghi" or "Belgi". He eventually resorts to write down "Un Belga. Anzi due!" (One Belgian. I mean, two.)
* Creator/BrianRegan has a routine built around this trope. It starts with "boxen" (like oxen) of donuts and just snowballs from there.
** Richard Lederer's "[[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2573/is_4_29/ai_n29150810/ Foxen in the Henhice]]" is based around the same concept.
* There's a joke about someone shipping a pair of mongooses to a zoo and being unsure of what the plural of "mongoose" is. They start out writing a note referring them to "mongooses", then try "mongeese", and eventually resort to writing "Enclosed is the mongoose you ordered. Also enclosed is the other mongoose you ordered".

[[spoiler:Incidentally: ''Dominatrices'', from the Latin, and ''octopodes'', from the Greek. But since by now they're both old and familiar enough to be considered English words, there's also nothing wrong with ''dominatrixes'' or ''octopus(s)es''.]]

** In book six, Harry Dresden figures out some of the players in the mystery, and comments that "we were dealing with a succubus. Or more than one, which for grammatical reasons I hoped was not the case."

* Used in the NoveltySong "I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas."

* [[WesternAnimation/TheHuckleberryHoundShow Mr. Jinks]] hates meeces to pieces!

* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Greece Lightning", the narrator of an educational filmstrip is unsure how to refer to [[EverythingsBetterWithPlatypus platypi]]. Platypuses. Platypeople?

* The plural form of ''dwarf'' [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html has been subject to some debate]]. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, ''dwarfs'' was the norm, but Creator/JRRTolkien set a precedent within the {{fantasy}} genre by referring to his dwarf characters as ''dwarves''. Since then, ''dwarves'' has become the standard plural for [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame the fantasy creatures that we all know and love]], ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and Creator/{{Disney}} being notable exceptions. On the other hand, ''dwarfs'' is still used within scientific contexts in RealLife. For example, dwarf stars and small organisms are referred to as dwarfs -- although when talking about humans with dwarfism, ''little people'' is considered more polite nowadays.

* The plural form of ''dwarf'' [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html has been subject to some debate]]. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, ''dwarfs'' was the norm, but Creator/JRRTolkien set a precedent within the {{fantasy}} genre by referring to his dwarf characters as ''dwarves''. Since then, ''dwarves'' has become the standard plural for [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame the fantasy creatures that we all know and love]], ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and Creator/{{Disney}} being notable exceptions. On the other hand, ''dwarfs'' is still used within scientific contexts in RealLife. For example, dwarf stars and small organisms are referred to as ''dwarfs'' -- although when talking about humans with dwarfism, ''little people'' is considered more polite nowadays.

[[spoiler:Incidentally: ''Dominatrices'', from the Latin, and '''octopodes''', from the Greek. But since by now they're both old and familiar enough to be considered English words, there's also nothing wrong with ''dominatrixes'' or ''octopus(s)es''.]]

I only like hippopotamuseses\\

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' tends to have a lot of fun with plurals, with "box" becoming "[[Creator/BrianRegan boxen]]", "kiwi" becoming "kiwus", "fruit basket" becoming [[FruitsBasket "fruits basket"]], and "liar's pants" becoming [[TheLordOfTheRings "liar's pantses, precious"]]. Items which you can only legitimately have one of tend to have plurals calling NoFairCheating; for example, the plural of "Staff of Ed" is "Staves of Ed, you dirty exploiter you".

* ''TheBradyBunch'': The [[PlotThreads B Plot]] of the episode "The Personality Kid" concerns Bobby & Cindy going ape-shit over safety. The following concerns some electrical outlets in the kitchen, which have so many extensions & multi-prongs plugged in that one is referred to as an "octopus."

->Yes, Shaniqua. She was a dominatrix. Because, you know, wrestling needs dominatrixs.
->Dominatrixes?
->Dominatrixi?
->Whatever.
-->--RD Reynolds, ''Wrestlecrap''

* Plural forms in Arabic are highly irregular. Rather than adding simply adding a suffix to the singular form like English, a majority of Arabic nouns become plural by changing their internal form entirely. Attempts to quantify the Arabic system of "broken plurals" (as they are called) into a teachable system produces ''dozens'' of distinct patterns. In other words, practically speaking, it's almost random. While not too much of a problem for native speakers, even Arabs will sometimes be at a loss what the plural form is of a more-rarely-used word.

TruthInTelevision. Related to the phenomenon of "paradigmatic gapping" in RealLife, where a grammatical form that logically should exist just...doesn't.[[labelnote:case in point]]The proverbial example in English is the verb "can", which can be used in the present or the past, but not in any other tenses. You just can't say "I will can do X", you need to use something like "will be able to" instead.[[/labelnote]]

[[spoiler:Incidentally: '''''Octopodes'''''. It's from the Greek.]]

* In the sixth book of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry Dresden figures out some of the players in the mystery, and comments that "we were dealing with a succubus. Or more than one, which for grammatical reasons I hoped was not the case."

--> '''Miss Brooks''': Where's Mr. Boynton? Or should I say where are Mr. Boyntons . . . Or Misters Boynton . . . Where's everybody?