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.

Penes, yes. But then just to be confusing it's phalloi.

Is that related to hoi polloi?

Isn't the plural of phallus either phalluses or phalli?

Oxford English Dictionary = phalli or phalluses (though I would stick with phalli as it feels more correct to me - we wouldn't after all say cactuses or alumnuses).

Plural of phallos (Greek) = phalloi.

I think...

I love it when pretentious people get it wrong. I once heard someone refer to "opi" as the plural of "opus". No, you idiot, it's "opera", third declension. Or if you aren't going to be showing off, just say opuses.

And it isn't octopi either. It's octopuses. Apparently.

Not octopera either! [hgrin]

Kai is a name in many languages. Common in Hawaii it means ocean (as it does in Japenese). Also in Mandarin, where it means victory. Its a name in Finland, Estonia, Burma, Nigeria, and more.

I think...and I am sure someone who actually knows will come along...that there are a couple of reasons for the variations.

I believe (my school days seem a very long time ago!) that there are many Latin 'us' words that are pluralised by giving them 'i' endings, but some that don't.

But also, and importantly here, that while Latin words often go from 'us' to 'i', Greek words don't. And Octopus is one of them.

So you need to know the origin of a word in order to reasonably safely assume its plural.

In answer to the OP's question, the problem I struggle with is that generally I would rather speak or write 'correctly' and my main bug bear is when I feel compelled to use 'who' when I know it should be 'whom' in order to fit in with convention. I have to force myself not to add' 'I know that should have been "whom"'!

MrsStephenFry, and is the plural of 'Kai' the same in all countries? For example, might you have two Kaii in your class, or a couple of Kaium coming to a party?

Like the crapola Psammead I am, I heard my name called and came rushing to the breach, dear friends a week late.

My stance on forums v. fora is that as the word forum has become well and truly stolen borrowed into the English language, it's ours to pluralise, bastardise, terrorise and vandalise as we see fit. I used to belong to a forum which insisted on fora and frankly, it was a twatfest.

Stick a bloody s on the end and have done with it. My second language has billions of ways of making plurals and it sucks donkey balls. English is simpleish in that respect and therefore glorius until you hit an exceotion or twenty.

Use fora is you like, though. English is easy-going like that. But I shall stick to the humble -s.

Fourkids, by whom do you feel compelled to use "who" when "whom" should be used? Am a bit surprised that people would tell you not to use it when it should be!

Thzumbazombiewitch, well in conversation I'm sure no-one would actually tell anyone not to use it. However, just like words become bastardised into English and their pluralisation, for example, may change, it does become accepted to use 'who' sometimes.

But it isn't as simple as that. Even in professional writing 'who' is often used where 'whom' would more correctly be used, because it has become accepted as the norm in some circumstances.

I try to tell myself it doesn't really matter!

Agree wit the OP.

Words borrowed from other languages usually follow the gramatical rules of the adoptive language.
Feel free to use fora when speaking Latin.

How about Cacti??? Cactuses always seems a bit awkward to me. My 9 year old would deffo correct me if I said Cactuses.

Formulae surely wrong in this context. Isn't it?

Fourkids, I see what you mean. However, I am a bit bloodyminded about things like this - for example, in scientific journals, there used to be a "norm" that Latin names for things were italicised - this has lapsed in some. When talking about species, the species name should have a capital, the subclass name should have a small letter. This has also lapsed in some journals. THese things annoy me (probably irrationally [hgrin]) but I taught my students that they HAD to do it properly or risk losing marks [mean]

I know that 'whom' is somewhat out of favour, as is whilst (don't see that too often now!) but I shall still use it when it is appropriate - dinosaur that I am!

I like a good whilst.

I wonder though - does anyone write 'awhile'? I know I say it all the time, but in writing I always say 'for a while'.

It's one I'd see in poetry or older-style writing, I think Psamme - "I've been wondering that awhile myself" sort of thing.

I persauded a gullible colleague that Sudoku was an irregular Greek noun and that the plural was Sudokota :o

Aye, it always seems a bit clunky to write, though it uses les syllables than 'for a while'.

I might try to start a trend and scatter it about the world wide web.

Sudokota sounds like a region of Latvia, or would do if it had a south coast.

Sounds suitably Japanese though, doesn't it?

Psammead - fewer syllables surely?

I said 'les syllables' if you don't mind. I was being le French.

And I really really could not care fewer about that kind of thing.

I've no wish to get too seious about it as I'll go all ranty, but language is about successful communication in its most basic function, and about beauty in its higher function. It is only very rarely about strictly following the rules.

Oh so sorry Psammead. I just asssumed you could not spell "less" but did not want to draw anyone's attention to it.