Scientific Writing for Computer Science Students - FTP Directory ...

38 CHAPTER 4. GRAMMAR WITH STYLE NOTES4.2.1 Plural formsIrregular plural formshalf – halveslife – livesaxis – axesmatrix – matriceschild – childrenperson – peopleautomaton – automatavertex – verticesindex – indices (or indexes)appendix – appendices (or appendixes)analysis – analysesthesis – thesesparanthesis – paranthesesbasis – basesemphasis – emphasesseries – seriesmedium – mediacriterion – criteriaphenomenon – phenomenaData is originally the plural form of datum, but nowadays it is frequentlyused as a singular word. The same holds for hypermedia. ”The data is biassed”,”Hypermedia offers a new way to implement learning environments”Notice also:• If the suffix is {-s,-ss,-sh,-ch,-x,-z} in singular → -es in plural,e.g. research – researches, approach – approaches, quiz – quizzes• The same happens with most words which have suffix -o, unless theword is abbreviated or of foreign origin. E.g.cargo – cargoes, but photo – photos, dynamo – dynamos• After consonant -y changes to -ies in plural. E.g. floppy – floppies.Singular words which look like plural formsThe names of disciplines: mathematics, statistics, physics.