Is the plural of roof, roofs or rooves?

[overtherainbow]

My DD(6) came home with her spellings today - she has to change the list of nouns into plurals. They are for example: elf, roof, branch, stitch. I thought 1 roof = roof, more than 1 = roofs. Am I wrong?

[UCM]

[SenoraPostrophe]

dwarf is fairly widely used. "vertically challenged" is silly imo, but better than "little person" as one site I've just found suggests (had to google - wasn;t sure before)

[UCM]

Senor, if you called a vertically challlenged person a dwarf, I believe you would be breaking the law??? Could be wrong.

[Boco]

ruvi
rufi
ruvula

[overtherainbow]

I have just found this quiz whilst looking for roof or rooves - who can answer it correctly in the quickest time? I will post the answers shortly.......
Q1 - What's the plural of 'belief'?
beliefs
believes
Either can be used.

Q2 - What's the plural of 'leaf'?
leafs
leaves
Either can be used.

Q3 - What's the plural of 'roof'?
roofs
rooves
Either can be used.

Q4 - What's the plural of 'scarf'?
scarfs
scarves
Either can be used.

Q5 - What's the plural of 'cuff'?
cuffs
cufves
cuves

Q6 - What's the plural of 'wolf'?
wolfs
wolves
Either can be used.

Q7 - What's the plural of 'loaf'?
loafs
loaves
Either can be used.

Q8 - What's the plural of 'dwarf'?
dwarfs
dwarves
Either can be used.

Q9 - What's the plural of 'brief'?
briefs
brieves
Either can be used.

Q10 - What's the plural of 'cliff'?
cliffs
clives
clifves

Q11 - What's the plural of 'reef'?
reefs
reeves
Either can be used.

Q12 - What's the plural of 'hoof'?
hoofs
hooves
Either can be used.

Q13 - What's the plural of 'proof'?
proofs
proves
prooves

Q14 - What's the plural of 'safe' (a locked, metal cupboard for storing valuables)?
safes
saves
Either can be used.

Q15 - What's the plural of 'chief'?
chiefs
chieves
Either can be used.

Q16 - What's the plural of 'knife'?
knifs
knifes
knives

Q17 - What's the plural of 'half'?
halfs
halves
Either can be used.

Q18 - What's the plural of 'calf'?
calfs
calves
Either can be used.

Q19 - What's the plural of 'life'?
lifes
lives
Either can be used.

Q20 - What's the plural of 'thief'?
thiefs
thieves
Either can be used.

Q21 - What's the plural of 'wharf'?
wharfs
wharves
Either can be used.

Q22 - What's the plural of 'chef'?
chefs
cheves
Either can be used.


Q24 - What's the plural of 'wife'?
wifes
wives
Either can be used.

Q25 - What's the plural of 'shelf'?
shelfs
shelves
Either can be used.

Q26 - What's the plural of 'handkerchief'?
handkerchiefs
handkerchieves
Eith er can be used.

[overtherainbow]

Thanks for all the replies I will probably advise her to write roofs and rooves.

[SenoraPostrophe]

dwarfs do exist actually, UCM. but they don't necessarily have long ginger beards or live underground.

[SenoraPostrophe]

and anyway dictionary.com doesn't even list "clagnut"

[UCM]

Am I the only person on here who didn't actually believe in dwarfs or fecking dwarves, they don't exist, only in snow white.

[overtherainbow]

I am 29 and only have one roof but didn't think my spelling was too bad when I was at school.

[SenoraPostrophe]

s'alright fireflyfairy. I'm not upset or anything.

[Desiderata]

I agree, Rainbow, that it's an unintelligent question for a school to pose.

Both uses are acceptable, so no pupil can technically be wrong in their reply.

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[Desiderata]

Ah, but hold old are you, 100X? In my day, rooves was in liberal use.

But I like the earlier answer. It's best to spell it roofs, but we tend to pronounce it rooves ... so there's something for everyone.

[overtherainbow]

The reason I ask is because at the top of the list she has the guide - spelling pattern: plurals: add 'es' or change f for v and add 'es'. That will make roof into rooves - Surely the school would realise that roof is roofs not rooves. Or maybe not and I am the confused one and went to the wrong school.

[UCM]

But how many times have any of you written 'roofs' unless of course you was a chav who had a daughter called Ruth and you woz writin to yer geezer in nick.

Then you could say 'Roofs teef are fru'

Apart from that I could never understand anyone writing that down at all. I am only interested in my 'roof'. If the others are buggered, not my problem.

[fireflyfairy2]

Senorapostrophe, I was only saying it didn't exist on there.. not that they were any kind of authority.

Sorry.

[bramblina]

Pruners, is it really not dwarves?
Desiderata, thank you! However, punctuation and spelling are definitely changing and it is wrong, wrong, wrong. Harrods and Boots have even dropped their apostrophe as they thing it looks "better"

[LynetteScavo]

I checked the Oxford A-Z of Spelling, which says;

roof noun and verb
The most usual plural of roof i roofs, although rooves is sometimes used.

[SenoraPostrophe]

since when was dictionary.com any sort of authority?

I'd get out me enormous Oxford, but it's packed.

[UCM]

I would bet money on it being 'Roofs', the Readers Digest Oxford complete wordfinder is never wrong.

[glyn]

It's def. roofs. Many words take the -ves in the plural, but not all!

[fireflyfairy2]

dictionary.com says they have no entry for rooves.


It's surely roofs.

[scatterbrain]

It is roofs - I got stood up front in assembly when I was 9 and told off for repeatedly writing rooves beacuse I thought it was right !

[ahundredtimes]

I have never in all my born days seen the word rooves written down anywhere. Is madness, I am Disputing it!