Dear Readers,
This month I tackle the unusual plural of a few particular words. Just to be clear, plural means "more than one." For most common nouns, to make a word plural, we add an s. For example, cat becomes cats in the plural, girl becomes girls. Without thinking about it, we automatically make the correct plural of other words, such as dress becoming dresses or party becoming parties, or child becoming children, or foot becoming feet. You get the idea.
But lately, I have heard or read where the wrong plural was used or the plural form was used in place of the singular form. See the examples below.
CACTUS
Example: On the TV show "Vegas," casino owner Vincent Savino explains about the flowers in their suite that his wife admires. He says, "They're plucked from the cactuses in the desert."
Example: Mike, one of the titular characters in TV's "Mike and Molly," is upset that his mother will be selling his childhood home and moving to Arizona. When he takes his mom's dog Jim out so that the dog can relieve himself, Mike says, "Say goodbye to your favorite tree, Jim. When you move to Arizona, you're gonna be whizzin' on cactuses and that's a whole different skill set."
For the plural of words ending in us, such as cactus and radius, the rule is that the us changes to i.
See the examples below for the correct spelling and usage. Note: cacti and radii.
Example: In the book I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, the author Nujood Ali, a young Yemeni girl, describes their landscape: "Cacti by the side of the road; arid mountain passes..."
Example: Jenna Miscavige Hill writes in Beyond Belief about her experience in Scientology and moving to the Ranch near Hemet, California. "B.J. and I hardly noticed the sweltering heat as we walked through the desert in search of different cacti."
[I learned this plural at an early age because in the backyard of my childhood home, my father had planted a garden of cacti.]
MILLENNIA
Millennia is actually the plural of the singular noun millennium. For singular words ending in um, like millennium and podium, the rule is that the um changes to a. See the examples below.
Example: On the TV show "Necessary Roughness," Rob Maroney is the sports agent to star receiver Terrence King of the fictional N.Y. Hawks football team. The agent tells his client, "...your hero player, he threw the block that won you a play-off game, took two bullets, survived. That is the feel-good story of the millennia." Of course he means, "of the millennium."
PODIUM
Example: While watching TV's "Royal Pains," I heard this clever exchange between Evan R. Lawson, CEO of Hankmed in the Hamptons who is running for City Council, and his colleague Divya Katdare, who is helping him set up for a mock debate. The scene opens with them on a lawn, each one in front of a podium. She asks him, "Are the podia really necessary?" He explains that the more like the actual debate setting, the more prepared he will be. "And it's actually 'podium'."
She counters with, "'Podia', from the Latin." He rebuts, "Podiums, from the Office Depot."
Who is right in this debate? Divya, of course.
By the way, do you realize that media is plural of medium. Radio is one medium of communication while newspapers are another. Together, they make the media.
CRITERIA
Criteria is actually the plural of criterion.
Example: I read an interview with Leonardo Di Caprio in OK Magazine. He is asked if he avoids pretty-boy roles. He answers, "No, not at all...The only criteria that I have for filming is, is there enough to do?" This fine actor meant to say, "criterion" since it is only one.
PHENOMENON
Yes, that is the singular noun. Its plural is phenomena. Keep reading...
Example: Dexter, in his titular TV show, comments while watching a baptism. His voice over says,
"Some people think that religion began as a way for primitive cultures to explain natural phenomenon...the fire, the wind, the rain..." Nope, Dex, you mean to say "phenomena" since you are mentioning more than one.
Example: On the television show "Modern Family," skeptic junior high brainiac Alex is dragged to a psychic by Gloria, her grandfather's wife. Gloria whispers to the psychic, "She doesn't believe in psychics." Alex retorts, "It's not just psychics. It's all unquantifiable phenomena." Hurray for the brainiac writers.
Example: Jenna Miscavige Hill, writing in Beyond Belief, uses this word correctly in the plural.
She describes a book that teaches Scientologists how they all came to this planet. "When we opened The Factors, we found pretty pictures of clouds and sunrises, leaves and mountains, lightning, and other natural phenomena." Good girl.
However, as good as her vocabulary is in her writing, I cannot say the same for the vocabulary of Scientology. Witness: In her book mentioned above, Jenna talks about a process that Scientologists needed to go through. "The deeper into the Clay Table process we got, the more we were supposed to have a realization called an 'end phenomena,' basically a win... Every auditing level in Scientology had a specific end phenomena." What the f*#% ? Since when is it acceptable to invent words by using a known word incorrectly? Here they use the plural of phenomenon but use it as a singular entity. This is just the tiniest tip of the Scientology iceberg where I believe all kinds of strange things were invented, courtesy of L. Ron Hubbard. [But that's another story which I don't care to discuss.]
Well, my deed for this month is done. If ever in doubt as to the correct plural of a noun, please check the dictionary.
