ninja or ninjas? samurai or samurais?

[optimistic pessimist]

Dear all,

I'd like to aske about the plural forms of ninja and samurai.

Which you you use, two ninja or two ninjas?

A lot of samurai, ora lot of samurais?

I googles thse words, but I found both with "s" and without "s".

Thank you!

OP

 

[BobK]

Use the -s suffix. I don't know how plurals are formed in Japanese, but I do know that trying to use foreign plurals in words borrowed into English usually causes problems - the Internet is peppered with mistaken Latinate endings (for example the ubiquitous syllabi), and similar hypercorrect parades of ignorance are best avoided by using English plurals.The user thinks s/he's showing off his/her greater knowledge, but at best s/he's making things unnecessarily complex, and at worst s/he's making him/herself look ridiculous. Use -s - that's what Fowler, for example, recommends.

You could also avoid the problem by supplying a generic noun: 'ninja/samurai warriors'..?

b

PS If your teachers say 'syllabi' (as many of mine did) it may be politic to leave them be; or - if you're on good terms with them - you could (privately) observe that the plural is syllabus with a long U.
PPS I was getting 'syllabus' confused with 'prospectus'. I am not correcting this here (and thus making the later discussion of my mistake confusing); see posts 4 and 5
PPS Abject apologies to OP and 5jj, who I unwittingly invited to share in my error! ;-)

 

[riquecohen]

The great Kurosawa film was presented in English-language countries as "Seven Samurai." Samurais is a word I had never seen until I found it here. Dictionary - Yahoo! Education
I can't comment on ninja.

 

[suprunp]

PS If your teachers say 'syllabi' (as many of mine did) it may be politic to leave them be; or - if you're on good terms with them - you could (privately) observe that the plural is syllabus with a long U.

May I inquire what is so wrong with 'syllabi'?

syllabus
(ˈsɪləbəs)
Pl. syllabi (ˈsɪləbaɪ) or syllabuses (ˈsɪləbəsɪz).
OED

 

[BobK]

I was getting it confused with 'prospectus', which - being a fourth declension noun - has the plural -ūs. Latinate plurals are easy to get wrong - as I've demonstrated. This supports Fowler's advice to use -s plurals in most cases (except where an irregular ending is widely used - as 'genii' is). Some dictionaries (e.g Syllabus | Define Syllabus at Dictionary.com ) give the -s plural first. ;-)

b

 

[Tdol]

I don't know how plurals are formed in Japanese

Basically, Japanese nouns don't have a plural form.

I have heard ninja and samurai used with and without -s.