Le fou rire

[flemmings]

Maybe it's the allergy meds but this observation made tears spring from my eyes:

it is it's own plural

Lo, the grammar gods fail one of their earnest and faithful own, as grammar gods will - every single time."

Part of this wank, about the plural form of lettuce, for god's sake.

Comments

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha that's a good one.

Letti? XDD My sister knows someone who pluralises apparatus as apparati...

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

See, even those of us who took Latin from age 12 tend to confuse the first declension, where singular is -us and plural is -i, with the fourth, where both singular and plural are -us. I had to look it up, but apparatus is a fourth, plural apparatus, but (this is new to me) with a long u sound.

Much easier to say apparatuses, frankly, if only to avoid the 'was that a long or short u?' trap that, mutatis mutandis, afflicts gaijin trying to distinguish between the fourth day of a month and the eighth. One is yooka and one is yokka and I can't remember which is which, let alone hear the difference, is why kind railway booking agents would say yon-nichi and hachi-nichi to me instead.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Re: declensions, YES! I had that trouble all the time.

[sho-sunaga.livejournal.com]

my poor head has an headache...頭痛が痛いです(grin)
all those grammatical rules! ARG

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha!

Locus and loci always confused me into thinking focus and foci. Well there will always be those that eternally confuzzles me,..

like,

fish and fishes! The English language really has a lot to answer for! ^_~

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

But foci is the plural of focus. It's just general usage that makes it focuses, and not always.

One fish, two fish
Red fish, blue fish.

Easy as pie for those who know their Dr. Seuss.

Fruits is the one that drives me batty. 'Eat three servings of fruit a day.' 'Eat your fruit.' 'Fruit and vegetables.' There is no such word as 'fruits.' Especially when followed by 'basket'.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Well see I do know my Doctor Seuss because there are Zans that open cans in that one! ^_^,

It's the general usage here that causes the confusion.

Although 'Fruits' followed by 'basket' could just be a quirk of losing/gaining something in translation! ^_~

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I am amused all to heck!
How will fandom_wank EVER top this?!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Sadly, f_w is probably quite able to top that with one hand tied behind its back. The batshit, it is strong within us.