IRREGULAR FOREIGN PLURALS

OF LATIN OR GREEK ORIGIN

Some scientific and technical nouns derived from Latin and

Greek have kept their original plural endings. The most
common examples are:

LATIN GREEK
SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL

alga algae stoma stomata

axis axes phenomenon phenomena
matrix matrices
nucleus nuclei
bacterium bacteria

Words that are of Latin or Greek origin but have

already been partly or completely integrated into
the English language and have accepted the
English plural forms:

cactus – pl.: cactuses or cacti

formula – pl: formulae or formulas
EXERCISES:
Write the plural or singular form of the following words. Then write the
Croatian equivalent:

medium - _______________
quantum - _______________
bacteria - _______________
synthesis - _______________
curriculum - _______________
fungus - _______________
appendix - _______________
criterion - _______________
scripta - _______________
hypothesis - _______________
data - _______________
syllabus - _______________
catalysis - _______________
locus - _______________
symposium - _______________
mitochondrion - _______________
bacillus - _______________
index - _______________
catalysis - _______________
equilibrium - _______________
axis - _______________
coccus - _______________
spirillum - _______________
cactus - _______________
formula - _______________
locus - _______________
virus - _______________