# plural nouns ending with ...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-nouns-ending-with/458421>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 31, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-nouns-ending-with/458421 "2008-07-31T22:36:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-nouns-ending-with/458421/21 "2008-08-04T14:12:26Z")

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[QUOTE=Peter Morris]  
But one ear of corn is a corn-on-the-cob. And two ears would be two corns-on-the-cob, possibly. Or maybe not. Well, I said I wasn’t sure.  
[/quote]

Wouldn’t one call it multiple “cobs of corn”? “Corn-on-the-cob” is a method of serving, or a dish. If one is speaking of the actual objects, they would be cobs of corn (“corn cobs” implies the empty leftover cobs, I would believe.).

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-nouns-ending-with/458421/22 "2008-08-04T20:41:08Z")

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Probably right. I said all along I wasn’t sure it’s legitimate.

Still I don’t need it any more since ‘squab’ is a good one for b, thanks to yabob.

Culs-de-sac and folk are also good additions to my list.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-nouns-ending-with/458421/23 "2008-08-04T20:49:31Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> If you want a plural ending in N, what’s wrong with ox/oxen? (The -en is clearly the pluralizing element there, which isn’t the case, so much, with man/men.)

-en used to be a standard plural ending in English. The only common occurences of it nowadays are “oxen”, “children” (which is actually doubly-pluralized, with “childer” once also being plural), and “brethren”. One occasionally still encounters “shoen” as the plural of “shoe”, in old song lyrics and the like, and “vaxen” (plural of a Vax computer) and “sistren” (plural of “sister”, analogous to “brethren”) are sometimes used facetiously. “Vixen”, a female fox, is also related to this, but nowadays, “vixen” has become the singular, with the plural being the unremarkable “vixens”.

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**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-nouns-ending-with/458421/24 "2008-08-04T21:39:26Z")

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[QUOTE=Chronos]  
-en used to be a standard plural ending in English. The only common occurences of it nowadays are “oxen”, “children” (which is actually doubly-pluralized, with “childer” once also being plural), and “brethren”. One occasionally still encounters “shoen” as the plural of “shoe”, in old song lyrics and the like, and “vaxen” (plural of a Vax computer) and “sistren” (plural of “sister”, analogous to “brethren”) are sometimes used facetiously. “Vixen”, a female fox, is also related to this, but nowadays, “vixen” has become the singular, with the plural being the unremarkable “vixens”.  
[/QUOTE]  
I’d just like to take this opportunity to say that the plural form of “emacs”, often given as “emacsen”, sets my teeth on edge.

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