- Irregular plurals (noun); Irregular tense form (verb)
"Regular-ise them, please!" It is my wish when I was in my school time.
I will simply call "irregular noun of plural form" "irregular noun", vice versa
I will simply call "irregular verb of different tense form" "irregular verb", vice versa
I see no points why "regular nouns/verbs" cannot be right. The birth of them gives severe burdens on learners. The only ways learners can do is to remember it by rote:
Irregular nouns:
-o irregulars
- heroes, echoes, potatoes, tomatoes
But: commandos, kilos, solos, photos
Good news (either adding -es or -s is acceptable):
- buffalo(e)s, volcano(e)s, mosquito(e)s
-f, -fe irregulars
- calf, calves
- knife, knives
- turf, turves
But: proofs, dwarfs, hoofs/hooves, scarfs/scarves
unchanged irregulars (plural = singular)
- barracks*
- headquarters*
- series
- sheep
- aircraft
* Usage note (from Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary 4th Edition) says:
"barracks/headquarters" – [plural nouns with a singular or plural verb]. These have a plural form but may agree with either singular or plural verb.
In conclusion:
- a barracks/headquarters is…
- barracks/headquarters is/are…
Other English irregulars
- ox, oxen
- tooth, teeth
- louse, lice
- goose, geese
- penny, pence
- person, persons/people [NB: people, peoples]
foreign irregulars
- aquarium, aquaria
- nucleus, nuclei
- radius, radii
- cactus, cacti
- larva, larvae
- formula, formulae
- hypothesis, hypotheses
- appendix, appendices
- matrix, matrices
- phenomenon, phenomena
If all irregulars are regular-ise (Now we add -s for every and each plural noun!), life will be much easier.
Irregular verbs:
unchanged irregulars
hit, hit, hit
put, put, put
read, read, read
PS: It is a really bad idea. The unchanged irregulars just add more ambiguity.
"I hit the ball."
Is "hit" in present or past tense?
other irregulars
creep, crept, crept
drive, drove driven
3 Big Spoilers:
1 lie(=fib), lying, lied, lied
2 lie(= put a body flat), lying, lay, laid
3 lay, laying, laid, laid
deal, dealt, dealt
mean, meant, meant
seek, sought, sought
How native speakers are confused at it
Take "seek" as an example, my English native friend in the UK said it (I use "it" to mean he/she) was sometimes confused at uncommon irregulars (eg seek). It said "seek" starts to regular-ise here (ie it is ok to use "seeked" instead of "sought").
I asked if my friend wished to regular-ise all verbs. It didn't know. However it probably wanted to keep all common irregular verbs unchanged (because my friend used to it!), but to get rid of all uncommon irregulars.
I would say different words to different targets:
- to learners: regular-ise all please! Use regulars. No irregulars!!!!!
- to native speakers: regular-ise all but still keep the common irregulars. We can use either "forgot" or "forgetted", but it is highly recommended if they can use "forgetted" as usually as possible.
I am sometimes thinking whether English is bullying people all over the world!  |