Linguistic commentary on unit 3. Adding suffixes to words ending in ‘y’.

General rule: if a word ends in the combination ‘consonant + y’, ‘y’ is changed into ‘i’ when a suffix is added: carry – carried, funny – funnier, heavy – heaviness, plenty – plentiful. If a word ends in the combination ‘vowel + y’, letter ‘y’ is preserved: enjoy – enjoyment, fray – frays, play - played.

There are some exceptions out of this rule:

1. letter ‘y’ is always preserved before the suffix ‘-ing’: bury – burying (but: buried), play – playing;

2. letter ‘y’ is always preserved before the suffix ‘-ish’: baby – babyish;

3. letter ‘y’ is preserved in the final position when pronounced as [ai]: shy – shyly, dry – dryness; though sometimes this ‘y’ can be changed into ‘i’ in these words;

4. letter ‘y’ is changed into ‘e’, not ‘i’, when the suffix ‘-ous’ is added to the following three words: pity – piteous, beauty – beauteous, plenty – plenteous;

5. letter ‘y’ is dropped when the suffix ‘-ous’ is added to the word calamity – calamitous;

6. there are some words to be memorized: lay – laid, pay – paid, say – said, slay – slain, day – daily, gay – gaily – gaiety.

Words with endings -s/-es.

Endings -s/-es are used to form nouns in plurals and verbs in third person singular. Ending –s is the most frequently used one. These are the cases of using –es:

1. if a word ends in -ch, -tch, -sh, -s, -ss, -x, -z: torch – torches, dish – dishes, bus – buses, kiss – kisses, box – boxes, waltz – waltzes (exceptions: words ending in –ch pronounced as [k]: epoch – epochs, stomach – stomachs, monarch – monarchs, etc.);

2. if a word ends in consonant + ‘o’: tomato – tomatoes (exceptions: radio – radios, photo – photos, auto – autos, casino – casinos, kilo – kilos, memo – memos, etc.). If a word ends in vowel + ‘o’, or if it is a musical term, or if it is a nationality, add –s: zoo – zoos, solo – solos, piano – pianos, disco – discos, Filipino – Filipinos;

3. if a word ends in -f or -fe, they are changed into –ves: leaf – leaves, knife – knives. Exceptions: dwarf – dwarfs, chief – chiefs, chef – chefs, roof – roofs, proof – proofs, belief – beliefs, safe – safes, handkerchief – handkerchiefs, etc. There are also some words which can have both forms: wharf – wharfs/wharves, hoof – hoofs/hooves, scarf – scarfs/scarves. But: if a word ends in –ff, leave it without changes and add –s: cuff – cuffs, cliff – cliffs.

4. if a word ends in consonant + ‘y’, ‘y’ is changed into ‘-ies’ to form plural or third person singular: baby – babies. If a word ends in vowel + ‘y’, leave it without changes and add –s: monkey – monkeys.

Special rules of forming plural in English.

Some words of French origin have the same spelling but different pronunciation in singular and plural. In singular the final ‘s’ is not pronounced while in plural it is pronounced as [z]: chamois, chassis, précis, bourgeois, etc.

Some words of French origin add silent ‘x’ (or ‘s’) to form plural: bureau – bureaux (bureaus), gateau – gateaux, etc.

In English there are some words of Latin and Greek origin which preserved their original forms of plural. All these words can be divided into several groups according to the endings they take:

1. words having the ending –us in singular and –i in plural: focus – foci, nucleus – nuclei, radius – radii, stimulus – stimuli, etc.;

2. words having the ending –um/-on in singular and –a in plural: aquarium – aquaria, memorandum – memoranda, spectrum – spectra, stratum – strata, phenomenon – phenomena, criterion – criteria, etc.;

3. most words ending in –is have –es in plural: analysis – analyses, axis – axes, basis – bases, crisis – crises, diagnosis – diagnoses, thesis – theses, parenthesis – parentheses, etc.;

4. some words ending in –a add –e in plural: larva – larvae, vertebra – vertebrae, formula – formulae, etc.;

5. there are some other words which are to be memorized: appendix – appendices, corpus – corpora, genus – genera, index – indices, matrix – matrices, vortex – vortices, etc.

NB! Most of the words mentioned above also have s-forms for plural when not used in scientific or official style: index – indexes, formula – formulas, etc.