Quantcast
These aren't "forums" - Blogs - Bulbagarden Forums

View RSS Feed

Because sometimes I need to rant.

These aren't "forums"

Rate this Entry
by , 13th April 2011 at 11:10 PM (370 Views)
One thing that I've noticed recently while welcoming people in the Garden Grotto, is that there tends to be a proclivity towards using "forums" instead of "fora." With words with Latin roots, the plural often ends in a vowel. (This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's still an issue) For example:

Curriculum --> Curricula
Cactus --> Cacti
Supernova --> Supernovae
Criterion --> Criteria

So, join me in my quest to spread the word of fora in the fora.

Submit "These aren't "forums"" to Digg Submit "These aren't "forums"" to del.icio.us Submit "These aren't "forums"" to StumbleUpon Submit "These aren't "forums"" to Google

Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. farewell, friend's Avatar
    Does it bother you that much? :p
  2. Shiny Celebi's Avatar
    its gonna be really hard to convince people to do that, im just saying
  3. Hallowheart's Avatar
    ... I like my S's
  4. Nelly's Avatar
  5. Mitsuru's Avatar
    Lapis Philosophorum.
  6. Mintaka's Avatar
    Still, thanks for the info...didn't know there existed a separate plural form of 'forum'. :P
  7. Ranger Jack Walker's Avatar
    forums

    forums
    forums
    forums
    forums
    forums
    forums
    forums
    forums
    forums
  8. Soulweaver's Avatar
    I assume you use Latin type plurals for all the nouns listed here?

    If a word is derived from Latin, it doesn't mean it is treated like a Latin word.
  9. Buzz's Avatar
    Doesn't it say Bulbagarden Forums as the page's title?
  10. Kamex's Avatar
    If this were Latin, then maybe. The word "forum" is English. It originates from Latin, yes, but it's a word of the English language and therefore, it acts like a majority of other words belonging to it.

    It's technically correct to use the Latin form for plural, but, like I said, it's an English word and "forums" is more common, anyways. It's not wrong, but "fora" isn't the only right way to pluralize the word.

    Going into sheer technicalities, to treat a modern word that's derived from Latin entirely like a genuine Latin word, we'd need to go by its full declension, which is something that the English language does not possess.

    Sorry for the excursus, I didn't mean anything bad by what I said. I just wanted to say that both ways of pluralizing are perfectly acceptable, with one simply being more common.

    EDIT: To add to what I said, with most words that have become full-fledged words of the English language (ie. not simply "borrowed" words that serve as alternatives for commonly used English words), there's always been a trend and a tendency to use morphology one would use habitually, making the word regular (e.g., virus and viruses). But there are words that are commonly pluralized as they are in Latin, with that form being somewhat more acceptable (e. g., the plural form of cactus is more commonly cacti, not cactuses). The concept can vary.
    Updated 14th April 2011 at 08:11 AM by Kamex
  11. Sollux Captor's Avatar
    Ranger Jack Walker: trolltrolltroll
    Soulweaver: notice I said "often". Although I realize that that should be "sometimes"
    Buzz: just because the title has that doesn't mean it's necessarily right.

    Notice I never said "forums" was wrong. I just said that it's more prominent than "fora", and "fora" sounds better to me, at least personally.
  12. Kamex's Avatar
    Well, you're certainly entitled to state that, and everyone has their preferences. So, I'm sorry if I may have seemed rude or pushy.
  13. TLZ the Confirmer's Avatar
    Interesting...

    Maybe Archaic will notice this and rename BMGf the Bulbagarden Fora...

    ...but probably not. Just like how the proper plural of octopus is octopi, but then everyone spelled it "octopuses", so now it's octopuses, even though "octopi" sounds better in my opinion.

    But ANYWAY, I'll try to support you. Maybe.
  14. Sollux Captor's Avatar
    ! Thunder Lord Z:

    The plural of octopus is octopuses, as the root word is Greek, not Latin.

    (It's technically octopedes in Greek, but we're speaking English)
  15. Buzz's Avatar

Trackbacks

Total Trackbacks 0
Trackback URL: