English typically forms a plural by
adding an 's'. But not all languages are the same, and English quite
happily borrows / is descended from many. This leads to several irregular
plurals, including
- Adding 'en'
- One ox, many oxen. But, one box, many boxes. As a joke, one Vax
(computer), many Vaxen
- One child, many children (with baroque etymology)
- changing the internal vowel
- One mouse, many mice; one louse, many lice. But, one house, many
houses.
- One foot, many feet. But, one boot, many boots.
- One goose, many geese. (And some have suggested that the plural
of mongoose should be multigoose!)
- One (wo)man, many (wo)men. As a joke in
science fiction fandom: one fan,
many fen.
- One sheep, many sheep.
- from the Latin
- One formula, many formulae
- One radius, many radii
- One appendix, many appendices; one matrix, many matrices
- One phenomenon, many phenomena
- One medium, many media; one millennium,
many millennia
- from the Greek
- One octopus, many octopodes (OED, if not Webster)
- Some languages have three forms: singular, exactly two plural, more
than two plural. For example, One Inuk, two Inuuk, three or more Inuit.
This distinction occurs only rarely in English:
- "between" two things versus "among" several
things
- "each other" for two, "one another" for more