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English plurals
Grammatical case
Grammatical conjugation
Grammatical mood
Grammatical aspect
Grammatical voice
Grammatical number
Grammatical person
Periphrasis
Definiteness
Clauses (in English)
Collocation (in English)
Double negatives
Intensive word form
Augmentative
Diminutives in Australian English
Interrogative word
Frequentative
English prefix
Demonstrative
English phonology
Vowel length
Great Vowel Shift
English honorifics
Style (manner of address)
Idiom (in English)
Noun class
Plurals
Hypocorism
English orthography
Auxiliaries, contractions
habits and past facts
Verb usage
Grammar disputes
English nouns are inflected for grammatical number, meaning that if they are of the countable type, they generally have different forms for singular and plural. This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plural nouns are formed from the corresponding singular forms, as well as various issues concerning the usage of singulars and plurals in English. For plurals of pronouns, see English personal pronouns.
Phonological transcriptions provided in this article are for Received Pronunciation and General American. For more information, see English phonology.
Regular plurals
The plural morpheme in English is suffixed to the end of most nouns. Regular English plurals fall into three classes, depending upon the sound that ends the singular form:
Where a singular noun ends in a sibilant sound —/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/— the plural is formed by adding /ɪz/ or /əz/ (in some transcription systems, this is abbreviated as /ᵻ/). The spelling adds -es, or -s if the singular already ends in -e:
kiss kisses /ˈkɪsᵻz/
phase phases /ˈfeɪzᵻz/
dish dishes /ˈdɪʃᵻz/
massage massages /məˈsɑːʒᵻz/ or /ˈmæsɑːʒᵻz/
witch witches /ˈwɪtʃᵻz/
judge judges /ˈdʒʌdʒᵻz/
When the singular form ends in a voiceless consonant (other than a sibilant) —/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ (sometimes) or /θ/— the plural is formed by adding /s/. The spelling adds -s:
lap laps /læps/
cat cats /kæts/
clock clocks /klɒks/
cuff cuffs /kʌfs/
death deaths /dɛθs/
For all other words (i.e. words ending in vowels or voiced non-sibilants) the regular plural adds /z/, represented orthographically by -s:
boy boys /bɔɪz/
girl girls /ɡɜːrlz/
chair chairs /tʃɛərz/
Phonologically, these rules are sufficient to describe most English plurals. However, certain complications arise in the spelling of certain plurals, as described below.
Plurals of nouns in -o
With nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant, the plural in many cases is spelled by adding -es (pronounced /z/):
hero heroes
potato potatoes
volcano volcanoes or volcanos
However many nouns of foreign origin, including almost all Italian loanwords, add only -s:
canto cantos
hetero heteros
photo photos
zero zeros
piano pianos
portico porticos
pro pros
quarto (paper size) quartos
kimono kimonos
Plurals of nouns in -y
Nouns ending in a y preceded by a consonant usually drop the y and add -ies (pronounced /iz/, or /aiz/ in words where the y is pronounced /ai/):
lady ladies
sky skies
Words ending in quy also follow this pattern:
soliloquy soliloquies
However, nouns of this type which are proper nouns (particularly names of people) form their plurals by simply adding -s:[1][2] the two Kennedys, there are three Harrys in our office. With place names this rule is not always adhered to: Germanys and Germanies are both used,[3] and Sicilies and Scillies are the standard plurals of Sicily and Scilly. Nor does the rule apply to words that are merely capitalized common nouns: P&O Ferries (from ferry).
Other exceptions include lay-bys and stand-bys.
Words ending in a y preceded by a vowel form their plurals by adding -s:
monkey monkeys
However the plural form (rarely used) of money is usually monies, although moneys is also found.[4]
Near-regular plurals
In Old and Middle English voiceless fricatives /f/, /θ/ mutated to voiced fricatives before a voiced ending.[5] In some words this voicing survives in the modern English plural. In the case of /f/ changing to /v/, the mutation is indicated in the orthography as well; also, a silent e is added in this case if the singular does not already end with -e:
bath baths /bɑːðz/, /bæðz/
mouth[a 1] mouths /maʊðz/
calf calves /kɑːvz/, /kævz/
leaf[a 2] leaves /liːvz/
knife[a 1] knives /naɪvz/
life lives /laɪvz/
In addition, there is one word where /s/ is voiced in the plural:[5]
house[a 1] houses /haʊzᵻz/
Many nouns ending in /f/ or /θ/ (including all words where /f/ is represented orthographically by gh or ph) nevertheless retain the voiceless consonant:
moth moths (voiced /mɒðz/ is rare but does occur in New England and Canada)
proof proofs
Some can do either:
dwarf[a 3] dwarfs/dwarves
hoof hoofs/hooves
elf elfs/elves
roof roofs (commonly voiced as /ruːvz/ to rhyme with hooves, but rooves is a rare archaic spelling)
staff[a 4] staffs/staves
turf turfs/turves (latter rare)
Irregular plurals
There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals, usually stemming from older forms of English or from foreign borrowings.
Nouns with identical singular and plural
Some nouns have identical singular and plural. Many of these are the names of animals:
duck[a 5]
The plural deers is listed in some dictionaries.[6] As a general rule, game or other animals are often referred to in the singular for the plural in a sporting context: "He shot six brace of pheasant", "Carruthers bagged a dozen tiger last year", whereas in another context such as zoology or tourism the regular plural would be used. Eric Partridge refers to these sporting terms as "snob plurals" and conjectures that they may have developed by analogy with the common English irregular plural animal words "deer", "sheep" and "trout".[7] Similarly, nearly all kinds of fish have no separate plural form (though there are exceptions—such as rays, sharks or lampreys). As to the word fish itself, the plural is usually identical to the singular, although fishes is sometimes used, especially when meaning "species of fish". Fishes is also used in iconic contexts, such as the Bible story of the loaves and fishes, or the reference in The Godfather, "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."
Other nouns that have or may have identical singular and plural forms include:
aircraft; watercraft; spacecraft; hovercraft; ocean-going craft
the blues (Referring to individual songs in the blues musical style: "play me a blues"; "he sang three blues and a calypso")
cannon (sometimes cannons) ("Cannons" is more common in North America and Australia, while "cannon" as plural is more common in the United Kingdom.)
head (Referring, in the plural, to animals in a herd: "fifty head of cattle": cf brace above.)
iris (usually irises, but iris can be the plural for multiple plants; in medical contexts irides is used)
stone - as a unit of weight equal to 14 pounds (occasionally stones)
series, species (and other words in -ies, from the Latin fifth declension)
counsel (barrister, lawyer; with the meaning "opinion/advice" it is an uncountable noun; with the meaning of "debate", an impeccable source says that the plural is "counsels": the annual Queen's Speech to Parliament traditionally ends: "I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels".)
Certain names of peoples are not inflected for the plural:
Chinese (and others in -ese)
Québécois (the feminine plural Québécoises is rarely borrowed into English)
This includes most names for Native American peoples, for example:
Exceptions include Algonquins, Apaches, Aztecs, Black Hawks, Chippewas, Hurons, Incas, Mohawks, Oneidas, and Seminoles.
English sometimes distinguishes between regular plural forms of demonyms/ethnonyms (e.g. "five Dutchmen", "several Irishmen"), and uncountable plurals used to refer to entire nationalities collectively (e.g. "the Dutch", "the Irish").
Certain other words borrowed from foreign languages such as Japanese and Māori are "correctly" not inflected in the plural, although many people are not aware of this rule; see § Irregular plurals from other languages below.
Plurals in -(e)n
The plurals of a few nouns are formed from the singular by adding -n or -en, stemming from the Old English weak declension. Only the following three are commonly found:
ox oxen (particularly when referring to a team of draft (draught) animals, sometimes oxes in nonstandard American English)
child children (only possible plural; originated as a double plural, with -en added to Old English plural cildra/cildru, which also led to the archaic plural childer as in Childermas, occasionally still encountered in Ireland).
brother brethren (archaic as plural of brother meaning a male sibling, but often seen as plural of brother meaning a member of a religious congregation or fraternal organization;[8] originated as a double plural, with -en added to Early Middle English brether)
The following -(e)n plurals are found in dialectal, rare, or archaic usage:
bee been (dialectal, Ireland)
cow kine (archaic/regional; actually earlier plural "kye" [cf. Scots "kye" - "cows"] plus -en suffix, forming a double plural)
eye eyen (rare, found in some regional dialects, used by Shakespeare)
shoe shoon (rare/dialectal)
house housen (rare/dialectal, used by Rudyard Kipling in Puck of Pook's Hill)
hose hosen (rare/archaic, used in King James Version of the Bible)
knee kneen (archaic/obsolete)
tree treen (archaic/obsolete, used by William Browne)
aurochs aurochsen (alternative plural, also aurochs)
The word box, referring to a computer, is occasionally pluralized humorously to boxen in the hacker subculture. In the same context, multiple VAX computers are sometimes called Vaxen particularly if operating as a cluster, but multiple Unix systems are usually Unices along the Latin model.[9]
Apophonic plurals
The plural is sometimes formed by simply changing the vowel sound of the singular (these are sometimes called mutated plurals):
foot feet
goose geese
louse lice
dormouse dormice
man men
mouse mice (computer mouse can also take the regular plural form mouses)
tooth teeth
woman women /ˈwɪmᵻn/
This group consists of words that historically belong to the Old English consonant declension, see Germanic umlaut § I-mutation in Old English. There are many compounds of man and woman that form their plurals in the same way: postmen, policewomen, etc.
The plural of mongoose is mongooses. Mongeese is a back-formation by mistaken analogy to goose / geese and is often used in a jocular context. The form meese is sometimes also used humorously as the plural of moose — normally moose or mooses — or even of mouse.
Miscellaneous irregular plurals
Some words have irregular plurals that do not fit any of the types given here.
person – people (also persons, in more formal contexts; people can also be a singular noun with plural peoples.)
die – dice (in the context of gaming, where dice is also often used as the singular; and also in the semiconductor industry. Otherwise dies is used.)
penny – pence (in the context of an amount of money in Britain). The 1p or 1-cent coins are called pennies. Pence is abbreviated p (also in speech, as "pee"). For 10 pences see § Headless nouns below.
Irregular plurals from Latin and Greek
See also: Plural form of words ending in -us
English has borrowed a great many words from Classical Latin and Classical Greek. The general trend with loanwords is toward what is called Anglicization or naturalization, that is, the re-formation of the word and its inflections as normal English words. Many nouns (particularly ones from Latin) have retained their original plurals for some time after they are introduced. Other nouns have become Anglicized, taking on the normal "s" ending. In some cases, both forms are still competing.
The choice of a form can often depend on context: for a scholar, the plural of appendix is appendices (following the original language); for some physicians, the plural of appendix is appendixes. Likewise, a radio or radar engineer works with antennas, but an entomologist deals with antennae. The choice of form can also depend on the level of discourse: traditional Latin plurals are found more often in academic and scientific contexts, whereas in daily speech the Anglicized forms are more common. In the following table, the Latin plurals are listed, together with the Anglicized forms when these are more common.
Different paradigms of Latin pronunciation can lead to confusion as to the number or gender of the noun in question. As traditionally used in English, including scientific, medical, and legal contexts, Latin nouns retain the classical inflection with regard to spelling; however those inflections use an Anglicized pronunciation: the entomologist pronounces antennae as /ænˈtɛni/. This may cause confusion for those familiar with a different Latin pronunciation. The words alumni (masculine plural) and alumnae (feminine plural) are notorious in this regard, as alumni in Anglicised pronunciation sounds the same as alumnae in Italianate pronunciation.
Because many of these plurals do not end in -s, some of them have been reinterpreted as singular forms: particularly the words datum and medium (as in a "medium of communication"), where the original plurals data and media are now, in many contexts, used by some as singular mass nouns: "The media is biased"; "This data shows us that ..." (although a number of scientists, especially of British origin, still say "These data show us that ..."). See below for more information. Similarly, words such as criteria and phenomena are used as singular by some speakers, although this is still considered incorrect in standard usage (see below).
Final a becomes -ae (also -æ), or just adds -s:
alumna alumnae
formula formulae/formulas
encyclopaedia (or encyclopædia) / encyclopedia encyclopaedias / encyclopedias (encyclopaediae and encyclopediae are rare)
Scientific abbreviations for words of Latin origin ending in -a, such as SN for supernova, can form a plural by adding -e, as SNe for supernovae.
Final ex or ix becomes -ices (pronounced /ᵻsiːz/), or just adds -es:
index indices /ˈɪndᵻsiːz/ or indexes
matrix matrices /ˈmeɪtrᵻsiːz/z
vertex vertices /ˈvɜːrtᵻsiːz/
Some people treat process as if it belonged to this class, pronouncing processes /ˈprɒsᵻsiːz/ instead of standard /ˈprɒsɛsᵻz/. Since the word comes from Latin processus, whose plural in the fourth declension is processūs with a long u, this pronunciation is by analogy, not etymology.
Final is becomes es (pronounced /iːz/):
axis axes /ˈæksiːz/
genesis geneses /dʒɛn.ə.siːz/
nemesis nemeses /ˈnɛməsiːz/
crisis crises /ˈkraɪsiːz/
testis testes /ˈtɛstiːz/
except for words derived from Greek polis, which become poleis (pronounced /iːs/ or /iːz/)
acropolis acropoleis /æˈkropoliːs/
(Some of these are Greek rather than Latin words, but the method of plural formation happens to be the same.)
Axes (/ˈæksiːz/), the plural of axis, is pronounced differently from axes (/ˈæksᵻz/), the plural of ax(e).
Final ies remains unchanged:
Specie for a singular of species is considered nonstandard. It is standard meaning the form of money, where it derives from the Latin singular ablative in the phrase in specie.
Final um becomes -a, or just adds -s:
addendum addenda
agendum (obsolete, not listed in most dictionaries) agenda means a "list of items of business at a meeting" and has the plural agendas
corrigendum corrigenda
datum data (Now usually treated as a singular mass noun in both informal and educated usage, but usage in scientific publications shows a strong American/British divide. American usage generally prefers to treat data as a singular in all contexts, including in serious and academic publishing.[10][11][12] British usage now widely accepts treating data as singular in standard English,[13] including educated everyday usage[14] at least in non-scientific use.[15] British scientific publishing usually still prefers treating data as a plural.[16] Some British university style guides recommend using data for both the singular and the plural use[17] and some recommend treating it only as a singular in connection with computers.[18])
In engineering, drafting, surveying, and geodesy, and in weight and balance calculations for aircraft, a datum (plural datums or data) is a reference point, surface, or axis on an object or the Earth's surface against which measurements are made.
forum fora/forums (fora is rare and might only be used to refer to more than one original Roman forum.)
medium media (in communication systems and digital computers. This is now often treated as a singular mass noun); mediums (spiritualists, or items of medium size)
memorandum memoranda/memorandums
millennium millennia
ovum ova
referendum referendums is often taken to mean plebiscites, and referenda as the propositions voted on. It is often argued that referenda is incorrect because it is a Latin gerund, which did not have a plural form, while the "propositions voted on" is more like a gerundive, which could be pluralised.
spectrum spectra (as in power spectrum in electrical engineering)
Final us becomes -i (second declension, [aɪ]) or -era or -ora (third declension), or just adds -es (especially for fourth declension words, where the Latin plural was similar to the singular):
alumnus alumni
corpus corpora
census censuses
focus foci
genus genera
prospectus prospectuses (plural prospectus is rare although correct in Latin)
radius radii
campus campuses (The Latinate plural form campi is sometimes used, particularly with respect to colleges or universities; however, it is sometimes frowned upon. By contrast, the common plural form campuses is universally accepted.)
succubus succubi (The word omnibus is similar in form but is originally dative plural, so cannot be pluralised to *omnibi: see The Motor Bus.)
stylus styli
syllabus syllabi/syllabuses (in fact the Latin plural is syllabūs)
viscus viscera
virus viruses ( see Plural form of words ending in -us#Virus )
cactus cactuses/cacti (in Arizona many people avoid either choice with cactus as both singular and plural.)
fungus fungi
hippopotamus hippopotamuses/hippopotami
octopus octopuses (note: octopi also occurs, although it is strictly speaking unfounded,[19] because it is not a Latin noun of the second declension, but rather a Latinized form of Greek ὀκτώ-πους, eight-foot. The theoretically correct form octopodes is rarely used.)
platypus platypuses (same as octopus: platypi occurs but is etymologically incorrect, and platypodes, while technically correct, is even rarer than octopodes.)
terminus termini/terminuses
uterus uteri/uteruses
Final us remains unchanged in the plural (fourth declension - the plural has a long ū to differentiate it from the singular short ǔ):
meatus meatus (but usually meatuses)
status status (but usually statuses)
Colloquial usages based in a humorous fashion on the second declension include Elvii (better Latin would be Elvēs or Elvidēs) to refer to multiple Elvis impersonators and Loti, used by petrolheads to refer to Lotus automobiles in the plural.
Some Greek plurals are preserved in English (cf. Plurals of words of Greek origin):
Final on becomes -a:
automaton automata
criterion criteria
phenomenon phenomena
polyhedron polyhedra
Final as in one case changes to -antes:
Atlas Atlantes (statues of the Titan); but
atlas atlases (map collections)
Final ma in nouns of Greek origin can become -mata, although -s is usually also acceptable, and in many cases more common.
stigma stigmata/stigmas
stoma stomata/stomas
schema schemata/schemas
dogma dogmata/dogmas
lemma lemmata/lemmas
anathema anathemata/anathemas
Irregular plurals from other languages
Some nouns of French origin add an -x, which may be silent or pronounced /z/:
beau beaux or beaus
bureau bureaux or bureaus
château châteaux or châteaus
tableau tableaux or tableaus
See also § French compounds below.
Italian nouns, notably technical terms in music and art, often retain the Italian plurals:
cello celli
Foreign terms may take native plural forms, especially when the user is addressing an audience familiar with the language. In such cases, the conventionally formed English plural may sound awkward or be confusing.
Nouns of Slavic origin add -a or -i according to native rules, or just -s:
kniazhestvo kniazhestva / kniazhestvos
kobzar kobzari / kobzars
oblast oblasti / oblasts
Nouns of Hebrew origin add -im or -ot (generally m/f) according to native rules, or just -s:
cherub cherubim / cherubs
seraph seraphim / seraphs (The Hebrew singular is "saraph". "Seraph" is a back-formation from "seraphim". The form "seraphims" occurs in the King James Version.)
matzah matzot / matzahs
kibbutz kibbutzim / kibbutzes
Ot is pronounced os (with unvoiced s) in the Ashkenazi dialect.
Many nouns of Japanese origin have no plural form and do not change:
bentō bentō
otaku otaku
samurai samurai
Other nouns such as kimonos, ninjas, futons, and tsunamis are more often seen with a regular English plural.
In New Zealand English, nouns of Māori origin can either take an -s or have no separate plural form. Words more connected to Māori culture and used in that context tend to retain the same form, while names of flora and fauna may or may not take an -s, depending on context. Many regard omission as more correct:
kiwi[b 1] kiwi/kiwis
kowhai kowhai/kowhais
Māori[b 2] Māori/(occasionally Māoris)
marae marae
tui tuis/tui
waka waka
↑ When referring to the bird, kiwi may or may not take an -s; when used as an informal term for a New Zealander, it always takes an -s.
↑ Māori, when referring to a person of that ethnicity, does not usually take an -s. Many speakers avoid the use of Māori as a noun, and instead use it only as an adjective.
Some words borrowed from Inuktitut (spoken in Canada and Alaska) retain the original plurals:
Inuk Inuit
inukshuk inukshuit
Iqalummiuq Iqalummiut ("inhabitant of Iqaluit")
Nunavimmiuq Nunavimmiut ("inhabitant of Nunavik")
Nunavummiuq Nunavummiut ("inhabitant of Nunavut")
Nouns from languages other than the above generally form plurals as if they were native English words:
canoe canoes
cwm cwms (Welsh valley; the Welsh language plural is cymoedd)
igloo igloos
kangaroo kangaroos
kayak kayaks
kindergarten kindergartens (in the original German, the plural form would be Kindergärten)
pizza pizzas
sauna saunas
ninja ninjas
Plurals of compound nouns
The majority of English compound nouns have one basic term, or head, with which they end. These are nouns and are pluralized in typical fashion:
able seaman able seamen
head banger head bangers
yellow-dog contract yellow-dog contracts
Some compounds have one head with which they begin. These heads are also nouns and the head usually pluralizes, leaving the second, usually a post-positive adjective, term unchanged:
attorney general attorneys general
bill of attainder bills of attainder
court martial courts martial
director general directors general
fee simple absolute fees simple absolute
governor-general governors-general
passerby passersby
ship of the line ships of the line
son-in-law sons-in-law
minister-president ministers-president
chief of staff chiefs of staff
procurator fiscal (in Scotland) procurators fiscal
It is common in informal speech to pluralize the last word instead, like most English nouns, but in edited prose aimed at educated people, the forms given above are preferred.
If a compound can be thought to have two heads, both of them tend to be pluralized when the first head has an irregular plural form:
man-child men-children
manservant menservants
woman doctor women doctors (no longer in common use)
Two-headed compounds in which the first head has a standard plural form, however, tend to pluralize only the final head:
city-state city-states
nurse-practitioner nurse-practitioners
scholar-poet scholar-poets
In military usage, the term general, as part of an officer's title, is etymologically an adjective, but it has been adopted as a noun and thus a head, so compound titles employing it are pluralized at the end:
brigadier general brigadier generals
major general major generals
For compounds of three or more words that have a head (or a term functioning as a head) with an irregular plural form, only that term is pluralized:
man-about-town men-about-town
man-of-war men-of-war
woman of the street women of the street
For many other compounds of three or more words with a head at the front — especially in cases where the compound is ad hoc or the head is metaphorical — it is generally regarded as acceptable to pluralize either the first major term or the last (if open when singular, such compounds tend to take hyphens when plural in the latter case):
ham on rye hams on rye/ham-on-ryes
jack-in-the-box jacks-in-the-box/jack-in-the-boxes
jack-in-the-pulpit jacks-in-the-pulpit/jack-in-the-pulpits
With a few extended compounds, both terms may be pluralized—again, with an alternative (which may be more prevalent, e.g. heads of state):
head of state heads of states/heads of state
son of a bitch sons of bitches/sons-of-a-bitch
With extended compounds constructed around o, only the last term is pluralized (or left unchanged if it is already plural):
cat-o'-nine-tail cat-o'-nine-tails
jack-o'-lantern jack-o'-lanterns
will-o'-the-wisp will-o'-the-wisps
See also the Headless nouns section below.
French compounds
Many English compounds have been borrowed directly from French, and these generally follow a somewhat different set of rules. French-loaned compounds with a head at the beginning tend to pluralize both words, according to French practice:
agent provocateur agents provocateurs
entente cordiale ententes cordiales
fait accompli faits accomplis
idée fixe idées fixes
For compounds adopted directly from French where the head comes at the end, it is generally regarded as acceptable to pluralize either both words or only the last:
beau geste beaux gestes/beau gestes
belle époque belles époques/belle époques
bon mot bons mots/bon mots
bon vivant bons vivants/bon vivants
bel[c 1] homme beaux hommes
↑ If the adjectives beau "beautiful/handsome", nouveau "new", or vieux "old" precede a masculine singular noun beginning with a vowel or a mute "h", they are changed to bel, nouvel, and vieil to help ease the pronunciation. The normal plural rule applies to plural nouns.
French-loaned compounds longer than two words tend to follow the rules of the original language, which usually involves pluralizing only the head at the beginning:
aide-de-camp aides-de-camp
cri du coeur cris du coeur
coup d'état coups d'état
tour de force tours de force
tête-à-tête tête-à-têtes
A distinctive case is the compound film noir. For this French-loaned artistic term, English-language texts variously use as the plural films noirs, films noir and, most prevalently,film noirs. The 11th edition of the standard Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2006) lists film noirs as the preferred style. Three primary bases may be identified for this:
Unlike other compounds borrowed directly from French, film noir is used to refer primarily to English-language cultural artifacts; a typically English-style plural is thus unusually appropriate.
Again, unlike other foreign-loaned compounds, film noir refers specifically to the products of popular culture; consequently, popular usage holds more orthographical authority than is usual.
English has adopted noir as a stand-alone noun in artistic contexts, leading it to serve as the lone head in a variety of compounds (e.g. psycho-noir, sci-fi noir).
Plurals of letters and abbreviations
The plural of individual letters is normally written with -'s: there are two h's in this sentence; mind your p's and q's; dot the i's and cross the t's.
Some people extend this use of the apostrophe to other cases, such as plurals of numbers written in figures (e.g. "1990's"), words used as terms (e.g. "his writing uses a lot of but's"). However others prefer to avoid this method (which can lead to confusion with the possessive -'s), and write 1990s, buts; this is the style recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style.
Likewise, acronyms and initialisms are normally pluralized simply by adding (lowercase) -s, as in MPs, although the apostrophe is sometimes seen. Use of the apostrophe is more common in those cases where the letters are followed by periods (B.A.'s), or where the last letter is S (as in PS's and CAS's, although PSs and CASs are also acceptable; the ending -es is also sometimes seen).
English (like Latin and certain other European languages) can form a plural of certain one-letter abbreviations by doubling the letter: p. ("page"), pp. ("pages"). Other examples include ll. ("lines"), ff. ("following lines/pages"), hh. ("hands", as a measure), PP. ("Popes"), ss. (or §§) ("sections"), vv. ("volumes"). Some multi-letter abbreviations can be treated the same way, by doubling the final letter: MS ("manuscript"), MSS ("manuscripts"); op. ("opus"), opp. ("opera" as plural of opus).
However, often the abbreviation used for the singular is used also as the abbreviation for the plural; this is normal for most units of measurement and currency. The SI unit symbols are officially not considered abbreviations and not pluralized, as in 10 m ("10 metres").
Headless nouns
In The Language Instinct, linguist Steven Pinker discusses what he calls "headless words", typically bahuvrihi compounds, like lowlife and flatfoot, in which life and foot are not heads semantically; that is, a lowlife is not a type of life, and a flatfoot is not a type of foot. When the common form of such a word is singular, it is treated as if it has a regular plural, even if the final constituent of the word is usually pluralized in a nonregular fashion. Thus the plural of lowlife is lowlifes, not "lowlives", according to Pinker. Other proposed examples include:
sabertooth sabertooths
still life still lifes
tenderfoot tenderfoots
An exception is Blackfoot, of which the plural can be Blackfeet, though that form of the name is officially rejected by the Blackfoot First Nations of Canada.
Another analogous case is that of sport team names such as the Florida Marlins and Toronto Maple Leafs. For these, see § Teams and their members below.
Defective nouns
Plurals without singulars
Some nouns have no singular form. Such a noun is called a plurale tantum. Examples include cattle, thanks, clothes (originally a plural of cloth).
A particular set of nouns, describing things having two parts, comprises the major group of pluralia tantum in modern English:
glasses (a pair of spectacles), pants, panties, pantyhose, pliers, scissors, shorts, suspenders, tongs (metalworking & cooking), trousers, etc.
These words are interchangeable with a pair of scissors, a pair of trousers, and so forth. In the American fashion industry it is common to refer to a single pair of pants as a pant —though this is a back-formation, the English word (deriving from the French pantalon) was originally singular. In the same field, one half of a pair of scissors separated from the other half is, rather illogically, referred to as a half-scissor. Tweezers used to be part of this group, but tweezer has come into common usage only since the second half of the 20th century.
There are also some plural nouns whose singular forms exist, though they are much more rarely encountered than the plurals:
nuptial nuptials
phalanx[d 1] phalanges
tiding tidings
victual victuals
↑ In medical terminology, a phalanx is any bone of the finger or toe. A military phalanx is pluralized phalanxes.
Singulars without plurals
Mass nouns (or uncountable nouns) do not represent distinct objects, so the singular and plural semantics do not apply in the same way. Some examples:
deceit, information, cunning, and nouns derived from adjectives, such as honesty, wisdom, beauty, intelligence, poverty, stupidity, curiosity, and words ending with "ness", such as goodness, freshness, laziness, and nouns which are homonyms of adjectives with a similar meaning, such as good, bad (can also use goodness and badness), hot, and cold.
In the arts and sciences
chemistry, geometry, surgery, the blues,[e 1] jazz, rock and roll, impressionism, surrealism. This includes those that look plural but function as grammatically singular in English: mathematics (and in British English the shortened form 'maths'), physics, mechanics, dynamics, statics, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, electronics, hydrodynamics, robotics, acoustics, optics, computer graphics, cryptography, ethics, linguistics, etc.; e.g., Mathematics is fun; Cryptography is the science of codes and ciphers; theromodynamics is the science of heat. Data often functions as a singular in terms such as 'data collection' or 'data processing'.
Chemical elements and other physical entities:
aluminum (US) / aluminium (UK), copper, gold, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, equipment, furniture, traffic, air and water
↑ Referring to the musical style as a whole.
Some mass nouns can be pluralized, but the meaning in this case may change somewhat. For example, when I have two grains of sand, I do not have two sands; I have sand. There is less sand in your pile than in mine, not fewer sands. However, there could be the many "sands of Africa" — either many distinct stretches of sand, or distinct types of sand of interest to geologists or builders, or simply the allusive The Sands of Mars.
It is rare to pluralize furniture in this way and information is never pluralized.
There are several isotopes of oxygen, which might be referred to as different oxygens. In casual speech, oxygen might be used as shorthand for "an oxygen atom", but in this case, it is not a mass noun, so one can refer to "multiple oxygens in the same molecule".
One would interpret Bob's wisdoms as various pieces of Bob's wisdom (that is, don't run with scissors, defer to those with greater knowledge), deceits as a series of instances of deceitful behavior (lied on income tax, dated my wife), and the different idlenesses of the worker as plural distinct manifestations of the mass concept of idleness (or as different types of idleness, "bone lazy" versus "no work to do").
The pair specie and species both come from a Latin word meaning "kind", but they do not form a singular-plural pair. In Latin, specie is the ablative singular form, while species is the nominative form, which happens to be the same in both singular and plural. In English, species behaves similarly —as a noun with identical singular and plural— while specie is treated as a mass noun, referring to money in the form of coins (the idea is of "[payment] in kind").[20]
Singulars as plural and plurals as singular
Plural words becoming singular
Plural in form but singular in construction
Certain words which were originally plural in form have come to be used almost exclusively as singulars (usually uncountable); for example billiards, measles, news, mathematics, physics etc. Some of these words, such as news, are strongly and consistently felt as singular by fluent speakers. These words are usually marked in dictionaries with the phrase "plural in form but singular in construction" (or similar wording). Others, such as aesthetics, are less strongly or consistently felt as singular; for the latter type, the dictionary phrase "plural in form but singular or plural in construction" recognizes variable usage.
Plural form became a singular form
Some words of foreign origin are much better known in their (foreign-morphology) plural form, and are often not even recognized by English speakers as having plural form; descriptively, in English morphology many of these simply are not in plural form, because English has naturalized the foreign plural as the English singular. Usage of the original singular may be considered pedantic, hypercorrective, or incorrect.[21] In the examples below, the original plural is now commonly used as a singular, and in some cases a regular English plural (effectively a double plural) has been formed from it.
Original singular
Original plural/
common singular
Common plural
agendum agenda[f 1] agendas
alga algae algae
biscotto biscotti biscotti
candelabrum candelabra candelabras
datum[f 2] data data (mass noun)
graffito graffiti graffiti (mass noun)
insigne insignia insignias
panino panini paninis (currently gaining use)
paparazzo paparazzi paparazzi
spaghetto spaghetti spaghetti (mass noun)
Magazine was derived from Arabic via French. It was originally plural, but in French and English it is always regarded as singular.
Other words whose plurals are sometimes misused as singulars include:
↑ An agenda commonly is used to mean a list of agenda.
↑ A single piece of data is sometimes referred to as a data point. In engineering, drafting, surveying, and geodesy, and in weight and balance calculations for aircraft, a datum (plural datums or data) is a reference point, surface, or axis on an object or the Earth's surface against which measurements are made.
Back-formation
Some words have unusually formed singulars and plurals, but develop "normal" singular-plural pairs by back-formation. For example, pease (modern peas) was in origin a singular with plural peasen. However, pease came to be analysed as plural by analogy, from which a new singular pea was formed; the spelling of pease was also altered accordingly, surviving only in the name of the dish pease porridge or pease pudding. Similarly, termites was the three-syllable plural of termes; this singular was lost, however, and the plural form reduced to two syllables. Syringe is a back-formation from syringes, itself the plural of syrinx, a musical instrument. Cherry is from Norman French cherise. Phases was once the plural of phasis, but the singular is now phase. The nonstandard, offensive, and now obsolete Chinee and Portugee singulars are back-formations from the standard Chinese and Portuguese.
Kudos is a singular Greek word meaning praise, but is often taken to be a plural. At present, however, kudo is considered an error, though the usage is becoming more common as kudos becomes better known. The name of the Greek sandwich style gyros is increasingly undergoing a similar transformation.
The term, from Latin, for the main upper arm flexor in the singular is the biceps muscle (from biceps brachii); however, many English speakers take it to be a plural and refer to the muscle of only one arm, by back-formation, as a bicep. The correct —although very seldom used— Latin plural would be bicipites.
The word sastrugi (hard ridges on deep snow) is of Russian origin and its singular is sastruga; but the imaginary Latin-type singular sastrugus has sometimes been used.
Geographical plurals used as singular
Geographical names may be treated as singular even if they are plural in form, if they are regarded as representing a single entity such as a country: The United States is a country in North America (similarly with the Netherlands, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, etc.). However, if the sense is a group of geographical objects, such as islands or mountains, a plural-form name will be treated as plural: The Hebrides are a group of islands off the coast of Scotland.
Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural
A number of words like army, company, crowd, family, fleet, government, majority, mess, number, pack, party and team may refer either to a single entity or the members of the set composing it. If the latter meaning is intended, the word (though singular in form) may be treated as if it were a plural, in that it may take a plural verb and be replaced with a plural pronoun: the government are considering their position (alternatively the government is considering its position). See synesis.
Thus, as H. W. Fowler describes, in British English they are "treated as singular or plural at discretion"; Fowler notes that occasionally a "delicate distinction" is made possible by discretionary plurals: "The Cabinet is divided is better, because in the order of thought a whole must precede division; and The Cabinet are agreed is better, because it takes two or more to agree."[22]
Plurals of numbers
The following rules apply to the plurals of numerical terms such as dozen, score, hundred, thousand, million, and similar:
When modified by a number, the plural is not inflected, that is, has no -s added. Hence one hundred, two million, four score, etc. (The resulting quantitative expressions are treated as numbers, in that they can modify nouns directly: three dozen eggs, although of is used before pronouns or definite noun phrases: three dozen of them/of those eggs.)
When not modified by a number, the plural takes -s as usual, and the resulting expression is not a number (it requires of if modifying a noun): I have hundreds, dozens of complaints, the thousands of people affected.
When the modifier is a vaguer expression of number, either pattern may be followed: several hundred (people) or several hundreds (of people).
When the word has a specific meaning rather than being a simple expression of quantity, it is pluralized as an ordinary noun: Last season he scored eight hundreds [=scores of at least 100 runs]. The same applies to other numbers: My phone number consists of three fives and four sixes.
Note the expressions by the dozen etc. (singular); in threes [=in groups of three] etc. (plural); eight sevens are fifty-six etc.
Usage and number agreement
Nouns used attributively
Nouns used attributively to qualify other nouns are generally in the singular, even though for example, a dog catcher catches more than one dog, and a department store has more than one department. This is true even for some binary nouns where the singular form is not found in isolation, such as a trouser mangle or the scissor kick. This is also true where the attribute noun is itself qualified with a number, such as a twenty-dollar bill, a ten-foot pole or a two-man tent. The plural is used for pluralia tantum nouns: a glasses case is for eyeglasses, while a glass case is made of glass (but compare eyeglass case); also an arms race versus arm wrestling. The plural may be used to emphasise the plurality of the attribute, especially in British English but very rarely in American English: a careers advisor, a languages expert. The plural is also more common with irregular plurals for various attributions: women killers are women who kill, whereas woman killers are those who kill women.
Teams and their members
In the names of sports teams, sometimes a noun will be given a regular plural in -s even though that noun in normal use has an irregular plural form (a particular case of headless nouns as described above). For example, there are teams called the Florida Marlins and the Toronto Maple Leafs, even though the word marlin normally has its plural identical to the singular, and the plural of leaf is leaves. (This does not always apply; for example, there is the Minnesota Lynx, not *Lynxes.) Some teams use a non-standard plural spelling in their names, such as the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox.
When a sport team's name is plural, the corresponding singular is often used to denote a member of that team; for example a player for the Cincinnati Reds may be referred to as a (Cincinnati) Red. This also applies to the St. Louis Blues ice hockey team, even though it is named after the song the "St. Louis Blues", and thus blues was originally a singular identical to its plural.
When a team's name is plural in form but cannot be singularized by removing an -s, as in Boston Red Sox, the plural is sometimes used as a singular (a player may be referred to as "a Red Sox"). Oftentimes, the singular "Red Sox" will be pronounced as if it were "Red Sock," even though the spelling suggests otherwise.
When a team's name is singular, as in Miami Heat and Colorado Avalanche, the same singular word may also sometimes be used to denote a player (a Heat, an Avalanche). When referring to more than one player, it is normal to use Heat players or Avalanche players (although in the latter case the team's plural-form nickname Avs is also available).
For the (especially British) treatment of teams as plural even if they have singular names, see § Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural above.
Adjectives as collective plurals
Certain adjectives can be used, uninflected, as plurals denoting people of the designated type. For example, unemployed and homeless can be used to mean "unemployed people" and "homeless people", as in There are two million unemployed. Such usage is common with the definite article, to denote people of a certain type generally: the unemployed, the homeless.
This is common with certain nationalities: the British, the Dutch, the English, the French, the Irish, the Spanish, the Welsh, and those where the adjective and noun singular and plural are identical anyway, including the Swiss and those in -ese (the Chinese etc.). In the case of most nationalities, however, the plural of the demonym noun is used for this purpose: (the) Americans, (the) Poles. Cases where the adjective formation is possible, but the noun provides a commonly used alternative, include the Scottish (or more commonly (the) Scots), the Danish (or (the) Danes), the Finnish (or (the) Finns), the Swedish (or (the) Swedes).
The noun is normally used anyway when referring to specific sets of people (five Frenchmen, a few Spaniards), although the adjective may be used especially in case of a group of mixed or unspecified sex, if the demonym nouns are gender-specific: there were five French (or French people) in the bar (if neither Frenchmen or Frenchwomen would be appropriate).
Numerical quantities
In common parlance, plural simply means "more than one". As a grammatical term, however, it is not limited in this way, although that is its default meaning.
Decimals are always plural
Any quantity that includes decimal precision is plural. This includes 1 followed by any number of zeros. It is normal to say 1.0 gallons per flush, for instance, 0.6 units, or 3.3 children per couple, not *1.0 gallon, *0.6 unit, or *3.3 child per couple.
Fractions are themselves singular or plural depending on the numerator (e.g. one eighth vs two eighths), and whatever they apply to can be singular or plural (e.g., three quarters of the apple(s)), depending on whether it refers to a fraction of a single item or many items.
Equivalent to zero is usually plural
Any zero quantity can be plural or singular, though plural is the default. So the following plurals are standard.
We have no bananas.
We have zero bananas.
We don't have any bananas.
However, if it has already been established that one item was in question, one can use no to deny that such an item exists in the singular:
"Can you pass me the banana on your desk?" "There's no banana on my desk."
Interrogative pronouns
The interrogative pronouns who and what generally take singular agreement,[23] e.g.
Who works there?
In some cases, a plural verb can be used when the answer is expected to be plural[23]
What have big ears and trunks?
When followed by a plural predicative complement, a plural verb must be used:[23]
What are the main reasons?
*What is the main reasons?
Following which, a singular verb suggests a singular answer, and a plural verb suggests a plural answer:[23]
Which of these answers is correct? (single choice)
Which of these answers are correct? (multiple choice)
When asking How many?, plural is standard (e.g. How many bananas? not *How many banana?), even if you expect the answer is only one.
English personal pronouns
Count noun
Singular they
1 2 3 In a Canadian accent, the mutation to a voiced consonant produces a change in the sound of the preceding diphthong (/aʊ/ or /aɪ/).
↑ The Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team is a special case; see Teams and their members § Notes below.
↑ For dwarf, the common form of the plural was dwarfs —as, for example, in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs— until J. R. R. Tolkien popularized dwarves; he intended the changed spelling to differentiate the "dwarf" fantasy race in his novels from the cuter and simpler beings common in fairy tales, but his usage has since spread. Multiple astronomical dwarf stars and multiple nonmythological short human beings, however, remain dwarfs.
↑ For staff (/stæf/ or /stɑːf/) in the sense of "a body of employees", the plural is always staff; otherwise, both staffs and staves (/steɪvz/) are acceptable, except in compounds, such as flagstaffs. Staves is rare in North America except in the sense of "magic rod", or the musical notation tool; stave of a barrel or cask is a back-formation from staves, which is its plural. (See the Plural to singular by back-formation section below.)
↑ "Ducks" is also correct; http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/duck
↑ English Irregular Plural Nouns
↑ UNIT S4: YS OR IES?
↑ Book titles include Mary Fulbrook, The Two Germanies. 1945-1990 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996); Henry Ashby Turner, The two Germanies since 1945 (New Haven: Yale UP, 1987).
↑ Entry for "money" in dictionary.com
1 2 Emerson, Oliver Farrar (1921). The history of the English language. Macmillan. p. 299. OCLC 317104.
↑ E.g. Collins English Dictionary, 6th ed. (Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2003).
↑ Partridge, Eric, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English, revised by Janet Whitcut (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1997), pp. 238–39.
↑ Dictionary.com entry for "brother".
↑ Raymond, Eric (1993). "How Jargon Works". The New Hacker's Dictionary. p. 12. But note that 'Unixen' and 'Twenexen' are never used. It has been suggested that this is because '-ix' and '-ex' are sometimes Latin singular endings that attract a Latinate plural.
↑ "Sometimes scientists think of data as plural, as in These data do not support the conclusions. But more often scientists and researchers think of data as a singular mass entity like information, and most people now follow this in general usage." http://www.bartleby.com/61/51/D0035100.html
↑ "...of the 136 distinguished consultants on usage polled for the 1975 Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, 49% responded that they use "The data is..." in writing. Also, in casual speech, 65% use data as singular. Those who defend "The data is..." often point to the fact that agenda is also, strictly, a plural, but is nearly always regarded as a single list and takes a singular verb. You'll probably never hear anyone ask: "Are the agenda interesting?" http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF3/334.html
↑ Summary of dictionary sources and scholarly usage
↑ New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999
↑ "...in educated everyday usage as represented by the Guardian newspaper, it is nowadays most often used as a singular." http://www.eisu2.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/revis006.htm
↑ AskOxford: data
↑ http://www.eisu2.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/revis006.htm
↑ UoN Style Book - Singular or plural - Media and Public Relations Office - The University of Nottingham
↑ http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=182902
↑ AskOxford: What are the plurals of 'octopus', 'hippopotamus', 'syllabus'?
↑ Harper, Douglas. "Specie". Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
↑ "The word agenda, for example, was originally plural (from agendum: 'something to be acted on') but is nowadays used only as a singular, and nobody in their right mind would insist that it should be used as a plural." http://www.eisu2.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/revis006.htm
↑ Fowler, H. W., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd ed., revised by Sir Ernest Gowers (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965), 403.
1 2 3 4 Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. pp. 505–506. ISBN 0-521-43146-8.
Look up Appendix:English irregular nouns in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Rules for Irregular Plural Formation of Nouns summary by Pat Byrd, Department of Applied Linguistics & ESL, Georgia State University
An Algorithmic Approach to English Pluralization by Damian Conway


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text:
So what's the story with all this violence and bad language?
by mandyhager	 June 10, 2012 April 21, 2017
I've been pondering on the seeming contradiction between Mandy the wimp (who rescues spiders from the bath, mice from the cat, catches and releases blowflies, can't even listen to violence on TV and films) and Mandy the writer (who writes pretty damn graphically about both sexual and physical violence, and isn't averse to adding the odd 'fuck' here and there.) How is it I can do this – and why do I go to these dark places at all?
I think it boils down to authenticity and truth telling. I write because I have identified something that I feel needs further exploration, and I want my readers to engage in the particular issue I'm addressing as well. Not that I expect people to think and feel the same way I do, but because I want to open a discussion on the ethics of each situation… present a point of view that isn't always canvassed in so-called 'mainstream' media, then leave it to the reader to think about and rule on.
It seems to me that we are all at risk of gross desensitisation to violence, given the diet we are fed on TV and film in particular. Violence (or crime) on TV, for instance, has become so prevalent on our screens that the underlying horror of these situations is often buried beneath the stylised slickness of the production. We accept that every week, in an increasing majority of programmes, we are privy to dead bodies, acts of cruelty and a general meanness of spirit that feeds into our everyday lives. I'm not asking for a return to The Waltons (well, actually that would be nice!) or Pollyanna, but a little more compassion and kindness depicted in creative content sure as hell wouldn't go amiss!
So, why then, you may ask, do I write about violence in my books at all? My hope is that by creating characters that the reader really cares about (and truthfully depicting violence in all its sheer awfulness) we get to see the realhorror and damage wrought by violence, rather than the Hollywood hype (i.e. poor old Coyote may be able to rise from the dead time after time when Roadrunner nukes him but real people can't!) I believe young people need to understand that there are long term consequences for both victim and perpetrator – that there is nothing sexy about a dead body, a gun battle, domestic violence or rape; that they are all gross violations and the perpetrators, far from being admired (or glorified, as is happening more and more often these days), deserve our condemnation.
The writers of that ghastly programme Dexter work hard to make you care about a serial killer; so too the writers of the latest crop of programmes about motor cycle gangs etc. In the CSI genres the bodies are chopped up, pontificated over and totally dehumanised, while in the shoot-'em-ups the heroes always dodge the bullet (this, my friends is not the case in real life). Violence hurts people and can destroy whole lives, families, communities, nations… if we're going to address this creeping desensitisation we have to reveal the real consequences of these types of violent acts. I believe it's my job to make my readers want to vomit at the thought of my characters suffering violent death or injury, if I am ever going to help shift the mindset of the next media-washed generation to a more peaceful place.
I guess all this is by way of saying that if you're horrified by the violence in my books, well, so am I! That's why I write it: to debunk those dangerous media myths.
As for bad language… I'm sorry, but really, in comparison to all the terrible things going on in the world, does it matter? As a writer, it's my job to create a convincing character on the page – one who you can believe would think and sound exactly as a real person would. If I write an 18 year old boy in today's world, then chances are his vocabulary is going to contain the odd shit and fuck! Get over it! Expressive language never killed anyone – lies, deceit, lack of respect for others, greed, brutality, power and control are the killers we should be outing with such moral enthusiasm! If we're going to be hyper-vigilant about the content of our books for young people then target these!
Herein ends the rant!
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Ms Kallas-Way says:
Whoops, thought I'd posted a comment here but it's disappeared to who knows where…
I agree entirely. One of the most disturbing things I saw on TV recently was a group of teenagers at a friend's funeral. He'd been killed while speeding and one of his friends did 'donuts' at the funeral. It was such a bizarre reaction to something as final as a needless death.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
China's Space Station Planners Put Out Welcome Mat
By Peter B. de Selding 14 October 2015
An artist's concept of China's planned space station.
(Image: © SpaceNews)
JERUSALEM — China is soliciting international participation in its future manned space station in the form of foreign modules that would attach to the three-module core system, visits by foreign crew-transport vehicles for short stays and the involvement of non-Chinese researchers in placing experiments on the complex, the chief designer of China's manned space program said Oct. 12.
But he declined to commit to an international orbital docking technology that would facilitate international participation in the Chinese facility.
The Chinese orbital station, consisting of a core module and two experiment-carrying modules, can be expanded to a total of six modules if international partners want to invest in their own components, said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the China Manned Space Program at the China Manned Space Agency. [China's First Full Space Station in Pictures]
Addressing the 66th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here, Zhou said the station will have a nominal crew of three, with a maximum capacity of six, with three-member crews being launched aboard Chinese Long March 2F rockets from the Jiuquan spaceport for missions of up to six months.
China has signed initial space station cooperation agreements with the Russian and European space agencies, and while the European Space Agency has begun training astronauts in Chinese, there is no specific plan yet to send astronauts to the Chinese facility.
The core module of the Chinese station is scheduled for launch in 2018, Zhou said. Crew-carrying Chinese capsules will visit the module before the two experiment modules are added to complete the initial station design.
"Work is well under way," said Zhou, whose education includes time at the University of Southern California. "All the modules and associated vehicles are under development."
If the current schedule holds – he gave no indication of any financing or technical roadblocks – the station would be ready for full operations "around 2022," he said.
One of the interesting features of the Chinese space station is that it will be served from two of China's four spaceports.
The cargo modules will be launched aboard Chinese 5B rockets from the Hainan spaceport in southern China, at 19 degrees north latitude. Pressurized and unpressurized cargo will be launched aboard Long March 7 rockets, also from Hainan.
But China's Shenzhou crew-transport vehicle is launched from the Jiuquan launch facility at 41 degrees north latitude, in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia.
The station will operate for 10 years or more, at an altitude of 340-450 kilometers with an orbital inclination of 42-43 degrees relative to the equator.
The International Space Station managed by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, operates in low Earth orbit of around 400 kilometers in altitude, with an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees, an accommodation to Russia, whose Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan is at 46 degrees north latitude.
Zhou said China plans to launch an astronomy telescope into an orbit near enough to the space station to dock to it for upgrades and servicing. He declined to specify the telescope's size.
Zhou also declined to say whether China's station would use a technical standard being developed in Europe and the United States that would facilitate future interoperability of orbital stations through common docking technologies.
The annual IAC conferences are routinely filled with commitments to international collaboration from national space agencies. A common docking standard is one of the few concrete examples of progress in this respect. A Chinese refusal to adopt it – Zhen said his office would need to assure its quality – would send a signal about China's intentions with international partners.
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has said it wants to maintain the current space station until at least 2024. NASA has said likewise, and both have said the facility could last until 2028 given the current understanding of hardware obsolescence and future maintenance requirements of the core structure.
European Space Agency Director-General Johann-Dietrich Woerner said here Oct. 12 that ESA, which has made a de facto commitment to the station to 2020, would like to extend that to 2024.
Woerner said his agency wants an extended space station participation to be tied to a longer-term barter agreement with NASA. The current agreement allows ESA to pay for its 8.3 percent share of the station's common operating costs not in cash to NASA, but in provision of the service module for NASA's future Orion crew-transport vehicle.
Under the current NASA-ESA agreement, ESA will provide a full service module for one Orion flight, and hardware for a second flight. The two sides have yet to negotiate an agreement that would make European industry the supplier of service modules beyond the first flight.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, has not yet been given clear indications from the Japanese government about whether Japan will maintain its space station participation to 2024.
JAXA President Naoki Okumura said Japan's Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science & Technology, which control's JAXA's budget, has proposed a 2024 commitment to Japan's parliament. A decision is expected in early 2016, he said.
This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Watch live today: Blue Origin launching New Shepard rocket @ 10:45 am ET
On This Day in Space! Jan. 14, 2005: Huygens probe lands on Saturn's moon Titan


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Sports Vandals Mistakenly Target Their Own Team Fans of English soccer team Crystal Palace spray-painted a bus they thought belonged to a rival team. But it turns out they spray-painted their own team's bus, causing 40,000 pounds-worth of damage.
Sports Vandals Mistakenly Target Their Own Team
Sports Vandals Mistakenly Target Their Own Team 0:28
< Sports Vandals Mistakenly Target Their Own Team
March 1, 20175:28 AM ET
Good morning, I'm Rachel Martin. Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough were set to face off over the weekend. They're rivals in the Premier League, which is England's top soccer division. Some Crystal Palace fans were up to no good. They spray painted their team name on Middlesbrough's bus. Except it wasn't. Apparently, the vandals didn't double check and accidentally tagged their own team's bus. The Crystal Palace team rode away from the match with a victory and $50,000 worth of damage. It's MORNING EDITION.


Make My Wish Come True. Only if it was that easy, some say. Believe it or not, your wishes can come true. With a little help from our friends at Get My Wish.
Get My Wish is a website that promotes caring. Many of us overlook the compassion in others. We get so caught up in social media that our communication with our friends and loved ones becomes so obsolete.
That is why the CEO of Get My Wish Paula, decided that there was a way to make things more meaningful that really can make an impacted in the world today.
Have you ever thought to yourself that this Holiday season, I don't need much? I certainly have. There has been plenty of times even before the Holiday season begins that I think of ways to give back to the community and support the causes that I'm most interested in.
Granted, many of us can't give as much as we would like to. Although, sharing your Free profile to your friends and family members can certainly bring attention to what you're most interested in.
On the Get My Wish website, you can create the only social media profile that really CARES about any issues and causes that you may want you're friends and family members to know about. Creating and sharing your profile makes more of an impact and it helps others. It will help change their attitudes, compassion, but most of all, supporting the causes that are most dear to your heart. When you create a free profile with your interests, you can add a wish list in it with your Gifts (products that give back to charities in our partner's area) and Causes (social issues you want to support).
Setting up your FREE profile is so easy to do. Create your profile, add gifts or pick a cause and share to let others know you care. Simple right?
So tell me, What do you really CARE about?
Which causes do you support? Do you care about Poverty, Animals or Clean Water?
But wait! Our friends at Get My Wish are making one reader's wish come true.
Come enter to win an $100 Amazon Gift Card!
Be sure to create a profile and share your causes that you support.
Enter this giveaway through the Giveaway Tools Form below.
Giveaway is open to U.S. & Canada residents, must be 18+ to enter, ends on December 6th. Good Luck!
Sunshine and Flip Flops and the blogs participating are not responsible for prize fulfillment/shipment. Sunshine and Flip Flops received monetary compensation for the hosting this giveaway. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and any other social media are not affiliated with this giveaway. If you have any questions please contact the host of this giveaway event Michele at mdickerson316@gmail.com.
My favorite activity to do during the holiday season is baking and making healthy treats for family gatherings.
My favorite activity to do during the holidays is to watch a lot of movies. I like to relax during the holidays. Eating a lot of good food is another favorite thing about the holidays for me.
can the winner choose the amazon gift card for amazon.ca?
I love to eat and nap for the season.
I buy Filipino food and desserts since I don't know how to make them at home. At the same time, my family prepares a midnight feast which is common practice to the Philippines, for Christmas and New Year. I also like to watch the changing LEDs on my live Christmas tree as it is very fascinating and beautiful. When it snows, I like to watch the snowflakes falling from my window. These are special and simple moments that I enjoy the most at home during the holidays, more than parties or shopping.
My favorite activity, is decorating the tree with my grandkids.
My favorite activity to do during the holiday season is to shop.
My favortite thing about the holiday season is spending more time with family!
favorite activity is time off!!
Bake cookies!!! This was always my favorite!! I always made some with my mom and my grandma!


A biomechanical assessment is a consultation that aims to identify the underlying mechanical causes of common foot and lower limb problems. Some foot or leg types may have altered gait biomechanics which in turn cause problems such as arch pain, heel pain or bunions. In addition, abnormal foot function can lead to problems with the patient's knees, hips, or back.
The biomechanical assessment includes a non weight bearing assessment of joint motion, muscle testing, and posture. A slow-motion video analysis of walking or running gait allows the podiatrist to carefully asses your foot and leg movement to help determine the most appropriate management.
After the assessment, a treatment plan is drawn up. This can include the use of orthotics, footwear recommendations, and a stretching and exercise programme.
Orthoses are a type of a shoe insert especially designed to control abnormal foot function and accommodate painful areas of the foot. These custom made insoles are prescribed to improve foot support and function, redistributing forces acting on the foot and lower limb. In some cases they aim to accommodate deformity and provide cushioning for painful areas. A cast or impression is taken of the patient's feet, and then sent with the prescription to an orthotic laboratory for the patient's individualised insoles to be manufactured.


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – A few years before Muhammad Ali became a heavyweight champion, legendary track and field coach Ed Temple said the young fighter told him he would one day hold the title.
The former Tennessee State University coach said in an interview shortly after Ali's death on June 3 that he first met the brazen boxer at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Temple, who was the U.S. women's track coach, said he had just finished practicing and was sitting on a bench in the Olympic Village when then-Cassius Clay sat down beside him.
Temple said the two talked for more than 30 minutes. During their discussion, he said Clay talked about his aspirations, boasting that he would one day be "the heavyweight champion of the world," Temple recalled.
"People are going to be running to see me one day," Temple said Clay told him.
A year later, Ali fought Floyd Patterson and knocked him out in the 12th round to hold onto his title.
Despite his cockiness, Olympic gold medalist and TSU alumnus Ralph Boston said Ali was a friendly person. Boston, who won a gold medal in the long jump competition at the 1960 Olympics, said he and Ali met in New York while they were waiting to board a plane for Rome.
"He had brashness, but he was always very cordial," Boston said.
Temple and Boston said Ali was also very fond of TSU alumna Wilma Rudolph, who in 1960 became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympics.
They said after they met Ali in Rome he stayed in contact, particularly with Rudolph, and made several stops at TSU to see them on his way to training camp in Miami.
Temple said the two remained close friends up until her death.
Ali was 74 when he died at a hospital near Phoenix, Arizona. A family spokesman said he was being treated for respiratory complications. Ali had battled Parkinson's disease for 32 years.


This page displays sold house prices for Ripplewood in Southampton.
Ripplewood in Marchwood, Southampton consists predominantly of flats. Properties on Ripplewood typically have values around £150,000 - £200,000, but larger detached houses can command upwards of £200,000.


Embark on a culinary journey as Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield brings 'Flavours of Kerala' to M Café, the all-day dining restaurant as part of the 10-day Kerala Food Festival. The southern state is known as the 'Land of Spices' as it offers a wide array of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.
Heming the majestic experience, Chef Bineeshfrom Kochi Marriott has put together a unique menu recreating the authentic dishes from the region. The buffet menu comprises of Kozhi Chukka, Natholi Fry, Parippu Thenga Curry, Avial with a generous use of coconut, chilli and spices, prepared in zesty flavours inspired from various districts of Kerala.
Foodies can explore the hidden treasures of local delicacies from this destination with themed ambience, live stations and curated dishes.


Learn HTML5 and CSS3 so that you can build your own website! No programming experience required.
No prior knowledge or experience is necessary!
We will get you set up in early lessons using only free resources.
HTML and CSS may seem intimidating, but there is a method to the madness. This course will show you everything that you need to know in order to make a functional and elegant website that suits your individual needs.
You do not need to have any programming experience to take this course. I will show you the basics, demonstrate examples, list common uses, and walk you through the development process step-by-step.
You will also learn good web programming practice and debugging skills through practice and observation. This will make your projects easier for another developer to read and easier for you to read if you take a break.
Click Take This Course and learn how to make a website of your very own!
This course is great for anyone interested in learning HTML5 and CSS from the ground up. The course is designed to teach the fundamentals of web development, but delves into advanced HTML5 and CSS3 techniques by the end of the course.


Write dataset contents to a zarr group.
Experimental The Zarr backend is new and experimental. Please report any unexpected behavior via github issues.
Store or path to directory in file system.
Persistence mode: 'w' means create (overwrite if exists); 'w-' means create (fail if exists).
If True compute immediately, otherwise return a dask.delayed.Delayed object that can be computed later.
If True, apply zarr's consolidate_metadata function to the store after writing.


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Valkyria Chronicles Update
Taking one more look at the upcoming demo.
By Ryan Clements
Updated: 12 May 2012 6:00 pm
Posted: 27 Sep 2008 1:53 am
At SEGA's Valkyria Chronicles event in San Francisco today, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with a demo of the game that will soon be available to the public via a subscription to the Qore digital magazine. For those unfamiliar with Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyria Chronicles Remastered - PlayStation 4
$19.99on Gamestop
, the game follows a platoon of soldiers serving the principality of Gallia, an independent nation situated between two warring factions in an alternate 1930's Europe. The game combines elements of a traditional strategy RPG with real-time, third-person combat and makes use of a beautiful artistic style designed to emulate a watercolor painting.
The demo at the event was identical to the demo I played at this year's E3, so the content was very familiar to me. For full details regarding the demo you'll be able to play next month, feel free to refer to my previous coverage.
To summarize the experience, the trial version gives you two battles to play through: the very straight-forward tutorial level and a more complex (but still manageable) normal engagement. The tutorial simply pits three of your soldiers against three enemies in a small countryside setting, but the actual skirmish features a full roster of soldiers against a sizable enemy force. Although there's countless ways to approach this level, you'll generally just move your forces forward, especially under the cover of your tank, and capture an enemy strongpoint that lies across a bridge.
The incredible thing about Valkyria Chronicles is the seamless combination of the strategy elements with the invigorating bursts of action. You'll oversee the battle from a map perspective, placing your units at the beginning of the engagement and overseeing enemy movements with every turn. Actual unit commands, however, play out in real-time, with the camera dropping "into" the map to become a fully realized world where you control the character and set up attacks manually. Although I've only played Valkyria Chronicles briefly, I already know that SEGA's upcoming project will garner a tremendous fanbase among the North American audience.
If you're interested in this brief but tantalizing demo, be sure to sign up for Qore and keep your eyes on the PlayStation Store around October 9th. Also, make sure to check back soon for a more extensive preview of Valkyria Chronicles, as well as a video interview with SEGA Producer Ryutaro Nonaka. In the meantime, check out the brand new gameplay trailer below and keep your PS3s at the ready.
DeveloperSEGA
Release DateNovember 4, 2008
PlatformsPlayStation 3, PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Gamestop $19.99


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For easier transportation, the foam Mattress comes in a bag with handles and thus you can transfer it easily through the home to your bedroom. Nectar mattress is compatible with almost all foundations which range from slatted frames, adjustable bases to box-springs. Its cover is made of exceptionally durable long-staple cotton. Its bed bug resistant fabric promotes proper airflow and further enhances temperature regulation. Its best cover can be removable and so you can wash it whenever you need to. The cover isn't only soft, but also made from a mix of Tencel-cotton, that is eco-friendly and highly breathable. Its 1-inch gel foam coating is intended for contouring the body and relieving stress. The Nectar mattress includes two layers underneath the cover for purposes of incorporating extra comfort.
2nd layer – the 1.5-inch layer has a firmer Feel than the 1st layer. It is designed to support the body's weight. It also eases the transition from the mattress' comfy layers into its supportive base.
Nectar mattress is one of the firmest foam Mattresses and thus it is suitable for a number of sleeping demands and tastes. Its quilted covers are plush and soft, but provide an additional layer of service. The mattress combines together comfort with support, courtesy of its ultra-firm bottom layers. Its firm yet comfy layers are slow responding in comparison to those of most foam mattresses out there. In general, Nectar mattress gives the right balance of stability and comfort.
Edge service Is Vital particularly if you Will be sharing the mattress with another person or your spouse, and if you'll use the whole surface of the mattress. The mattress is meticulously designed to provide support from its center to the side. You may easily roll from 1 border to another devoid of causing too much depression. Nectar mattress provides superior edge support compared to other traditional foam mattresses out there.
While new and straight from the box, the Foam mattress has a strong smell that can last for as much as two days. However, the smell starts to dissipate after two days and there is hardly any noticeable smell after a week. Again, it is simple to eliminate the smell once the mattress is new. You just need to out it for two days before sleeping on it.
Most foam mattresses have been proven to sleep Somewhat warm. However, the Nectar mattress supplies a controlled heating feature. Its infused cover, coupled with its high gel memory foam helps regulate temperatures, thus keeping you comfy and cool throughout the evening. Concerning heat regulation, the Nectar mattress has the capability to regulate temperatures more than any other foam mattresses currently on the market.
Nectar mattress price can vary between $500 to $900 depending on how big the Nectar mattress you select, and if you decide on additional accessories or not. The foam mattress is reasonably priced compared to other high-end foam mattresses which are available at a greater cost. As such, Nectar mattress boasts favorable consumer ratings on price and thus it's a wonderful choice for anybody searching for a reasonably priced foam mattress which can provide on comfort and endurance.
Nectar mattress is the first foam mattress To offer you a lifetime guarantee, something that makes it a highly sought-after foam mattress among mattress buyers. The lifetime warranty helps ensure the materials, durability and materials of the foam mattress indefinitely. Best of all, it serves as a solemn proof that the manufacturer of the high-quality foam mattress has confidence in its own materials, durability, reliability and structure.
Overall, Nectar mattress offer customers a Remarkably high-quality product at a surprisingly low cost. Boasting high Quality materials, sturdy construction and high levels of service and comfort, The Nectar mattress could be of excellent value for your hard-earned cash. The fact That it is produced to accommodate distinct sleeping needs and preferences makes It an superb option for anyone looking for a high-quality mattress. Again, You can try it risk-free before making a purchase, thanks to its 1-year trial duration. Simply put, Nectar mattress is truly an excellent option for Anybody Searching for an affordable foam mattress that's crafted with quality, comfort And durability in mind.


After a decade of producing and distributing award-winning ice cream throughout the region, Wheelbirks farm in Stocksfield has extended its offering with the Wheelbirks Parlour.
It is the latest business venture from the Richardson family, who have lived and worked on the dairy farm for five generations.
Lucinda Richardson, owner and manager of Wheelbirks Parlour, said: As a family, we are very proud of the parlour and have already received an overwhelming response from people that have come to visit. With a pre-school play area on site and an orchard to explore as well as a choice of luxury ice cream desserts, there is something to suit all ages making it the perfect treat for the whole family.