![]() ![]() Becoming A Proofreaderįor more advice on spelling, grammar, and everything else you need to know to start working as a proofreader, our course has you covered. And don’t forget to check your client’s style guide for advice if they have one. You can also use Google’s Ngrams tool to check how often variant spellings are used. If you’re unsure about the correct suffix for an English word with Latin (or Greek) origins, check a dictionary. The most famous example is “octopus.” Derived from Ancient Greek, the traditional plural of this word in English would be “octopodes,” while the standard plural is “octopuses.” Nevertheless, because “octopus” ends in “-us,” many people mistakenly treat it as a Latin word and use the plural form “octopi.” And, ultimately, all three spellings are acceptable insofar as their meaning is clear. In other cases, people mistakenly apply a Latin word ending. ![]() Others always use the traditional Latin word ending (e.g., alga → algae). Some are always pluralized with the English form (e.g., bonuses, viruses, campuses). While the guidelines above are useful, some Latin-derived terms only have one accepted plural spelling in English. When proofreading, then, think about which word ending would fit best for the document. For instance, most people would recognize “stadiums” as a plural of “stadium.” By comparison, “stadia” is less familiar so may confuse some readers (and it risks sounding elitist or pretentious). English plural forms are usually clearer in everyday writing and speech.“Formulas,” by comparison, may sound too informal for academic work. For example, you would expect to see “formulae” as the plural of “formula” in a research paper. Traditional plural forms are most common in formal academic and technical writing.However, sometimes the “best” form to use may depend on the context: As a proofreader, then, you would not need to correct either “cacti” or “cactuses” unless there was an issue with consistency to address. In most cases, both forms are acceptable. Other words with traditional and English plural forms include: I have one cact us, but you have many cact uses. And in this time, many people – knowingly or otherwise – have favored a traditional English plural form: ![]() I have one cact us, but you have many cact i.īut “cactus” has been part of English for hundreds of years now. As such, the traditional plural is “cacti”: As a result, many words with roots in Latin now have more than one plural form: we’ll call these the “traditional” and “English” plurals. But English usually forms plurals by adding “-s” or “-es” to a noun. These word endings follow the original Latin spelling conventions. Common Latin Plural Word EndingsĬommon Latin word endings in modern English include: Here, then, we’ll look at some common Latin plurals to see how these words work in English. These words can pose a challenge for proofreaders, though, as many have two plural forms. From abacus to virus, lots of English nouns have origins in Latin. ![]()
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