to wince every time I see "fora"?

[Mardymwahhaha]

The word forum has become naturalised as an English word surely? Can't people just say forums and stop showing off that they know using the Latin.

Ooh, am a bit confused. I namechanged for something earlier and thought I had namechanged back to the same. Is it the capitals?

Well, I did think it was a little harsh, especially as I was privately enjoying your hallowe'en name change (do I really need that apostrophe in "hallowe'en? Hmm?)

Of course, I hadn't noticed if I was highlighted or not, because I am automatically a lovely shade of lilac.

Is this any better.

Oops, missing ?

No.

Seahice TSC, 'seahice'

mardy- I have a DS and a DH, so there are frequently penii Chez Nancy.

Nancy - I have a DS and a DH and I've never had the need to refer to the penises collectively as far as I can remember

'Twas the capitalisation then, I think. I've been capitalised and uncapitalised on different threads. I'm going to get into awful trouble with Chaos.

Please - not the pukey green, Maryz. If you were OP, you'd be a shimmering silver colour for me.

I agree with you that forums is better, although I think the odd "fora" slips out now and again, when I'm not paying attention

Now I know it will make people think I am being pretentious rather than just unfashionable, I will redouble my efforts to stamp out stray Latin plurals.

Mardy, thanks! you are back to being a lovely shade of forest green for me :)

I nicked the silver for my posts

I thought hice was the plural of house, not horse. Jus' goes to show, dunnit, you can never be sure of anything these days.

MrsSF, your husband, being who he is, would have overlooked your expressing an interest in peni not least because the plural is penes (third declension).

Anyone know how I would refer to my two imaginary Ford Ka cars?

I can't find any suitable fora to ask this on.

On the point of alumnus, alumna, alumni, to be correct it is possible to be an alumnus of a university without actually being a graduate.

Maybe, guillotined, it is Kai, a la chez rooney...? Wonder if that is where the name came from?

Byeckers - kai is ancient greek for "and" (and modern Greek I think too)so it always strikes me as an odd name to give a child; you might as well call him or her "The" or "But".
Guillotined - I suppose if you have two Ford Ka cars you could call them collectively Kakaika.

I have been loving this thread. Well done for not putting it in Pedants' corner. It's been fascinating to think about which rules we abide by and which we ignore (or were unaware of!).

My personal favourite is a relative who has a Ford Focus and her son who also has a Ford Focus. I often refer to their Foci and it makes me smile every time!

Just for the record, I would say forums as fora sounds a tad pretentious

Hint of bream, kakaika is perfect! How funny imagine calling a child but! 'muuuuuuum' 'yes but'

penes like testes...

"Well done for not putting it in Pedants' corner."
Thanks for that Lylah. Whilst I like Pedants' corner (and have been known to contribute), I do get frustrated with the lack of acceptance of language change sometimes. I would personally prefer to say "forums" and if someone wants to judge me for a perceived lack of knowledge, than to say "fora" and for someone to judge me for being pretentious.

fourkids I once cooked penne in Spain and got myself into a bit of a linguistic twist.

My immediate thought for a pretentious plural for the Ka was "Kae"!

what is most interesting about penes is that lizards and snakes have two. Or, I believe if we are being pedantic, that they have one but in two halves, each working independantly of the other...some take it turns to give each one a work out....two hemipenes!

Gosh yes! Starting to infiltrate the Student Room site now too...I think, "yeah, right".