Fora & Forums

[Tdol]

Many speakers of English maintain that the correct plural of forum is fora rather than forums becuase it is a word of Latin origin. However, Google lists 3,720,000 entries for fora and 119,000,000 for forums....

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Source: The UsingEnglish ESL Digest
Online newsletter weblog containing ideas, thoughts and musings about the English language and its use, and is aimed at ESL learners and teachers alike.

 

[Casiopea]

Re: Fora & Forums

Many speakers of English maintain that the correct plural of forum is fora rather than forums becuase it is a word of Latin origin. However, Google lists 3,720,000 entries for fora and 119,000,000 for forums....

Read more...

Source: The UsingEnglish ESL Digest
Online newsletter weblog containing ideas, thoughts and musings about the English language and its use, and is aimed at ESL learners and teachers alike.

Tradition is nice; Latin has its place in scientific terminology for a reason: there's a definite history there connecting it to the past; but, and the last time I checked, it is Modern English that the majority of internet users speak/type.

Forums, to my knowledge, is the Modern English form. As for fora, well, why not? Thing is, using it goes hand in hand with educating Modern English speakers that it exists (i.e. you can't generate it on your own like car => cars).

And what about all those other words borrowed into English from other languages? Should we adopt their ways as well?

Latin is a dead language. What place that has in a living language--Netspeak--is beyond me.

Add -s is a genuine, productive rule (e.g. tacos is a word of Spanish origin--a word with Modern English baggage).

 

[Tdol]

Taste fine even with the English baggage. ;-)