Singular and plural Treat collective nouns as singular, unless it confounds meaning. For example ‘the team has’ rather than ‘the team have’. Watch names when using the plural. If you were writing about a family called Phelps, you would Phelpses were going for a day at the say: ‘The seaside.’ For words ending in there are no hard-and-fast rules, though the principle is that with ‘o’ most words just add an are exceptions. There are a few general patterns, too. If a ‘s’. There word is a short version of a longer word, just add an The same ‘s’: memos, photos, demos. applies to words that clearly have their roots in another language, such as stilettos, calypsos, chinos, bistros, casinos. And where a word ends with two vowels just add an as in videos ‘s’, and cameos. The best way of checking is to take the first version offered by the. So we would use: avocados, banjos, flamingos, ghettos, manifestos, mementos. Those taking an ‘e’ include: buffaloes, cargoes, dominoes, echoes, embargoes, haloes, heroes, mangoes, mottoes, potatoes, tomatoes, torpedoes, vetoes, volcanoes, tornadoes and mosquitoes (though Tornados and Mosquitos when talking about the planes). Students Refer to people on the course as rather than ‘learners’ ‘students’ T Tautologies Please try to avoid them. Common examples include: advance warning armed gunmen universal panacea
Singular and plural Treat collective nouns as singular, unless it confounds meaning. For example ‘the team has’ rather than ‘the team have’. Watch names when using the plural. If you were writing about a family called Phelps, you would say: ‘The Phelpses were going for a day at the seaside.’ For words ending in ‘o’ there are no hard-and-fast rules, though the principle is that with most words just add an ‘s’. There are exceptions. There are a few general patterns, too. If a word is a short version of a longer word, just add an ‘s’: memos, photos, demos. The same applies to words that clearly have their roots in another language, such as stilettos, calypsos, chinos, bistros, casinos. And where a word ends with two vowels just add an ‘s’, as in videos and cameos. The best way of checking is to take the first version offered by the. So we would use: avocados, banjos, flamingos, ghettos, manifestos, mementos. Those taking an ‘e’ include: buffaloes, cargoes, dominoes, echoes, embargoes, haloes, heroes, mangoes, mottoes, potatoes, tomatoes, torpedoes, vetoes, volcanoes, tornadoes and mosquitoes (though Tornados and Mosquitos when talking about the planes). Students Refer to people on the course as ‘learners’ rather than ‘students’ T Tautologies Please try to avoid them. Common examples include: advance warning armed gunmen universal panacea
FutureLearnEditorialguides.docx