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Irregular Plurals Quiz #2

Based on the plural, can you guess the singular forms of these words?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: November 14, 2018
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First submittedMay 15, 2014
Times taken64,110
Average score57.1%
Rating4.33
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Plural
Singular
Teeth
Tooth
Dice
Die
Alumni
Alumnus
Bacteria
Bacterium
Genera
Genus
People
Person
Criteria
Criterion
Plural
Singular
Data
Datum
Media
Medium
Foci
Focus
Paparazzi
Paparazzo
Phenomena
Phenomenon
Brethren
Brother
Lice
Louse
Plural
Singular
Hooves
Hoof
Salmon
Salmon
Dormice
Dormouse
Pence
Penny
Vertices
Vertex
Ova
Ovum
Viscera
Viscus
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69 Comments
Sulps
+23
Level 56
Jun 30, 2014
Long story short: In order to speak English, you have to speak Latin (and Old English).
azteque316
+2
Level 70
Jun 30, 2014
and its nothing compare to the speaking of French..
Varyn
+16
Level 24
Jun 30, 2014
Pronounced as its written? The last letters of every word are just there for funzies
brandybuck96
+2
Level 83
Sep 30, 2015
But German is such a mouthful, whereas if you learn the rules for French you barely have to say anything, seeing as there are so many similar sounds and half the letters aren't voiced.
MickeyMcNutt
+6
Level 22
Jan 15, 2016
Spanish is the easiest languages of all to pronounce. Think about this: we speak English and we have trouble spelling many words, while children in Spain learn to spell perfectly within a few years. There are rules for how things are pronounced in Spanish.
Findlay
+4
Level 82
Aug 29, 2016
Among European languages I think Spanish and Italian are the easiest in terms of pronunciation. I think Italian probably more so than Spanish from an English speaker's point of view, as Spanish has a few more tricky sounds (such as the rolled 'r' and regional variations such as yeísmo), but I think of all languages Japanese is probably the easiest I've encountered. Which is good, because it is nightmarishly complex in every other way.
Walacama
+1
Level 82
Oct 17, 2016
Agreed that Spanish is the easiest to pronounce and spell. Every letter in each word is pronounced. English, not so much. Latin, Greek, German, Old English, Middle English, and on and on.
sillie
+5
Level 76
Oct 17, 2016
You guys haven't tried Finnish yet. One letter - one sound. Whatever letter you put next to it doesn't change the sound. The only exception is the combination ng (and nk). Spanish is much harder in comparison.
silvestra
+2
Level 72
Oct 18, 2016
What sillie said! If you listen to Finnish people who don't pronounce English that well, you'll notice they all speak it pretty much the same way. They are pretty much pronouncing the words as they appear written (also known as 'rally English', made famous by Finnish rally & F1 drivers). :) But yes, Finnish is super super easy to pronounce.
TWM03
+1
Level 70
Mar 3, 2018
Hungarian also has a simple letter to sound correspondence. Any Spanish or Italian word can be pronounced correctly once you know the rules but there are some irregularities - for instance sometimes there are silent h's and it is impossible to tell by how a word sounds whether this will be the case. Also the c sound changes, in Italian from k to ch, and in Spanish from k to th, whereas in Hungarian it is always ts.
IsleAuHaulte
+2
Level 90
Oct 10, 2019
German is brutally out the window. Every word has its own plural, no standardization or rules. Every noun has 1 of 3 genders, again with no standard endings, just random. To complicate matters, of the dozen or so specific case and gender words for "the" they'll switch from one to the other with no apparent reason. For example "die" is single female plural and simple plural in nominative and accusative case, yet plural becomes "der" in the dative plural case. "Der" also being singular masculine in the nominative case. Some nouns take no plural form or a form which could be an entirely different singular noun, so better use your "the"s properly.

Pronouns follow a similar bizarre path of the same word jumping around from case, person and number. For example "sie" means she, they and you (formally). "Ihr" means her (possessive) and you plural (familiar with you).

Whose dumb idea was all this? So much for German ingenuity.

Historyenjoyer
+1
Level 46
Nov 19, 2023
What you are saying has little to no sense. German has a lot of standardized suffices that specifically belong to die, der or das (e.g. suffices -ung, -schaft, -heit, -keit are always linked to die). There are strict grammatical rules for changing die into der in Dativ, der into den in Akkusativ and so on. Germans almost always strictly abide by the grammatical rules, there are barely any exceptions. I am actually really confounded about your comment, because German is the opposite of what you described. You clearly have little experience with foreign languages, don't you? Because English gets bloody difficult with all its tenses, inconsistent pronunciation and peculiar exceptions for non-native speakers.
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
Jun 30, 2014
a dash of Spanish, Arabic and a few others wouldn't hurt, either.
komradtombstone
+3
Level 57
Oct 17, 2016
And French too, and old Gaelic, Norse, Germanic (Saxon). English really is an amazing mishmash!
DonTheLamplighter
+6
Level 85
Jun 9, 2017
Knowing semaphore helps too.
caribdevist
+4
Level 61
Mar 8, 2018
And Frisian.
ArisOBafiaris
+1
Level 45
Feb 27, 2021
I speak both Latin and Greek (which is useful for words like phenomenon or bacterium) but still I only got 12
wolfcat95
+11
Level 66
Jun 30, 2014
The plural of person is persons. People is the singular for a collective group of persons that share a trait and made plural by peoples. Often times the only shared trait for people is humanity itself, but that does not make it a plural for person. Both person and people are made plural in a regular fashion.
kalbahamut
+9
Level 81
Jun 30, 2014
That's one way the words are used. However it's also correct to say, for example, "are you the only person there or are there two or three people?" The clue is not incorrect. Words in English are often used in more than one way.
wolfcat95
+3
Level 66
Jun 30, 2014
@kalbahamut I generally find your arguments very well thought out, but in this case I could not disagree more. It is not a matter of opinion or how the words are used in casual speech; it is a matter of definition. One would be hard-pressed to find a dictionary that lists the plural of person as people, or the corollary, that the singular of people is person. People and person are etymologically unrelated words, except that they both have Latin roots.
ChaosQuizzer
+3
Level 22
Oct 17, 2016
@wolfcat95

kalbahamut is correct that both "people" and "persons" are suitable plurals for the word "person". Both terms are correct, but are used in different circumstances. "Persons" is to refer to the plural of "person", but can be easily defined with a particular number. However, "people" is used when accounting for more than 1 person, but is not easily countable.

Source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/person?s=t

kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
Oct 18, 2016
Thank you, Chaos. That's what I was saying.
Djinsasa
+4
Level 62
Apr 22, 2020
So, "forest" is the plural of "tree"?
kalbahamut
+4
Level 81
May 12, 2020
No. Forest is the singular of forests. It's not related to the word tree.
RobNobody
+5
Level 78
May 4, 2022
@wolfcat95 - "One would be hard-pressed to find a dictionary that lists the plural of person as people"

And yet, here it is in the Cambridge Dictionary, the Oxford University Press via Lexico, the Collins Dictionary, the Britannica Dictionary, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.

supermoose7115
+2
Level 43
Nov 19, 2023
@robnobody and here's Merriam-Webster, for good measure
leelee9000
+1
Level 48
Jun 30, 2014
Was going to write the same thing.
chattypenguin
+3
Level 34
Jul 1, 2014
People is the plural for person, and you will find it listed as such in dictionaries. Terms such as "persons" and "peoples" have fairly distinct connotations/usages different to using people as the plural of person.

"There were thousands of people/persons at the concert." If you are a native speaker of English, which would you choose? People is clearly correct in this instance.

"There are a number of people/persons of interest in this case." Again which sounds correct to you? In this particular usage "persons" would win out.

Persons is not the usual plural form of person - it is only used in specific instances.

kalbahamut
+5
Level 81
Oct 10, 2019
Doesn't really matter what the plural of person is, though. What's the singular of people if not person? Peep?
EcceHomo
+1
Level 82
Jan 26, 2021
^ this
ander217
+1
Level 74
Jun 30, 2014
Enjoyed this one. Another one, please?
Kaljavaasi
+10
Level 46
Jun 30, 2014
Irregular plurals? Half of those weren't irregular but just regular Latin words
brandybuck96
+7
Level 83
Oct 17, 2016
I think the majority of them were regular plurals in other languages.
komradtombstone
+3
Level 57
Oct 17, 2016
But how many people in the world "regularly" speak Latin these days, besides in the Church or in some science fields? I'd say Latin words in general are QUITE irregular these days, haha. Vale!
nanook
+1
Level 51
Oct 19, 2016
Exactly. Not irregular at all, just come from other languages.
IsleAuHaulte
+3
Level 90
Oct 10, 2019
They're extremely irregular. People who will correct you for using a plural such as stadiums instead of stadia are more often than not not gratingly incorrect unless you are using it in the nominative case, in general. Latin and Greek plural suffixes ("suffices" in fake non-Latin plural ;) change widely depending on sentence pecking order, possession, declension class, motion and so on. So remembering and using these "correct" plurals is most often wrong and ignorant in a strictly technical sense.
courthousedoc
+9
Level 78
Jun 30, 2014
And here I thought the singular or plural of Paparazzi was scum or vermin. Oh well.
17cruzc
+5
Level 71
Jul 3, 2014
Mitochondria/ mitochondrion would be great for this quiz.
beccimoo
+9
Level 56
Nov 29, 2015
Nice little fishy trick question!!
DanielSlade
+1
Level 43
Dec 30, 2015
prout
tom88
+1
Level 74
Apr 22, 2016
Media messed me up a bit. I was thinking about the media (Like TV, newspapers etc.) didn't realize they were talking about psychics until after I saw the answer
Sifhraven
+4
Level 72
Jul 30, 2019
They werent, and psychic didnt even cross my mind. Media is a collectively term, seperately each is a different medium, tv, radio, newspaper article.

Also in art the different materials you use are medium/media. Like in "media" they are carriers choosen to get your subject across. In this case the media is more tangible (maybe you heard of mixed media?)

instead of carrier you could also say channel. Maybe that makes the term "medium" a bit clearer for you, he/she is chosen to channel through, as the spokesperson or intermediate to convey a message.

intermediate hah!

Sifhraven
+3
Level 72
Jul 30, 2019
Btw the plural of the psychic medium is nót media, it is mediums.
HectorVortac
+1
Level 48
Oct 17, 2016
The vast majority of these irregular plurals are a result of words being introduced from other languages in which pluralization rules are being followed consistently. Other folks here have addressed the sea of Latin words. Usually in Italian - paparazzo - a word ending in 'o' becomes plural by changing it to 'i'. (Feminine words - ending in 'a' become 'e'.)
sumguy
+2
Level 85
Oct 17, 2016
For goodness sake. I got every single one -- even viscus -- but I looked at "foci" and I'm thinking, 'Foe-see. What the heck is fo-see?' Time runs out. Oh, "folk-eye"!
Soph1
+1
Level 50
Oct 18, 2016
Interesting. I've always called the second item by its plural name, when it was a singular item. I thought they were interchangeable terms. I learn this after 31 years. Other answers I couldn't get even though I know them.
LyRiKH
+1
Level 51
Nov 27, 2016
nice quiz
Cheviot
+2
Level 91
Aug 6, 2018
In French you need to know the ‘gender’ of every single thing In existence before making any sense. (And there no rules like ... “all vehicles are she” for instance.)
Sifhraven
+3
Level 72
Jul 30, 2019
It is that way in most languages, feminine, masculine or neuter
AVB
+3
Level 71
Oct 11, 2019
Indo-European languages, maybe. A lot of non-Indo-European languages don't bother with grammatical gender.
JackintheBox
+1
Level 80
Oct 10, 2019
Wow, managed to get all 21 in 47 seconds first try!
jennraven
+7
Level 67
Oct 10, 2019
Here I am thinking, 'wow, I didn't realize salmon had a singular form' 🤦
CaritasInVeritate
+2
Level 91
Oct 10, 2019
All the way to the end and hadn’t a notion about viscera!
Kalleanon
+3
Level 66
Oct 11, 2019
I guessed, based on some of the other answers, and got lucky. I would't have had a clue otherwise.
jayhiatt
+2
Level 71
Feb 25, 2021
That was the only one I didn't know off hand. Fortunately 'genera' was in there and they follow the same rule.
mathmannix
+2
Level 18
Feb 26, 2021
I never would have gotten viscera if I hadn't already answered genera...
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
Feb 25, 2021
I'm too lazy and divested from the site now to do it. Can someone else make a part #3?
rg1227
+1
Level 69
Feb 25, 2021
Even better, make a randomized version
OfTheMountain
+2
Level 62
Feb 25, 2021
I have to say "Salmon" feels like a bit of a trick question on this quiz considering all the others actually change. Is it really irregular if it stays the same? There are a lot of examples of that in the English language
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
Feb 25, 2021
Yes it is irregular. If it were regular then the plural of salmon would be salmons.
Damangio
+1
Level 64
Feb 28, 2021
A lot of fish and cloven-hoofed mammals follow that pattern. But still definitely irregular.
erikj
+1
Level 66
Feb 26, 2021
Interesting how we use criterium as a singular for criteria in Dutch, and have it also apply to the type of bike race, where in English a criterium solely refers to the bike race.
grout
+1
Level 45
Feb 27, 2021
only missed the last one
Damangio
+1
Level 64
Mar 1, 2021
Why is "dice" so hard? Everyone seems to know that it's an irregular plural; I don't think I've ever heard anyone use "dies" as the plural. But I've heard plenty of people use "dice" as both the singular and plural. Probably because "dice" is simply more common, like "bacteria." But I've also heard people use "die" as both the singular and plural. And these were board game enthusiasts who really should know better. I even have one board gamer friend who uses "dice" as the singular and "die" as the plural. Hypercorrection to the max.
Jato
+1
Level 71
Jan 9, 2023
Realized I’ve been using the plurals of “brother” and “penny” wrong my whole life! 🤦‍♂️
RossH
+1
Level 52
Nov 19, 2023
Pence is the plural for a sum of money. Pennies is the plural if meaning separate penny coins.
Aoto327
+1
Level 74
Aug 21, 2023
21/21, 100%, first try. “Viscus” is easy if you know Latin.
Kawada01
+1
Level 60
Nov 19, 2023
If I can use genera/genus, which i already knew, to guess viscera/viscus, which I didn't, then it's not really irregular, is it?
maur85
+2
Level 72
Nov 19, 2023
Most of these are more loan words than irregular plurals. They're actually quite regular in the original language
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