# Plural of "tomato" and "potato" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 7, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581 "2011-06-07T02:17:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/1 "2011-06-07T02:17:40Z")
Airman and I engaged in some discussion of a handwritten sign that I saw this afternoon. The sign says “Sorry, we’re out of Tomatoes!” (That’s verbatim.) I was so impressed with this burst of unexpected literacy that I took a picture of it and posted it to Facebook. I, of course, know that the plural of “tomato” is “tomatoes”. Airman, on the other hand, feels that the plural of “tomato” can be “tomatos”. The OED, for what it’s worth, backs him up, but to me, that just looks wrong. This is not a “who’s right” thing, because the OED does show “tomatos” as an alternate plural. This is more of a “How do most people do it?” thing. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/2 "2011-06-07T02:21:57Z")
You can spell it _tomatos_ in the same way you spell _hobos_. It’s your choice. That’s what America is about: choice. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/3 "2011-06-07T02:28:33Z")
Never ever heard or seen it as “tomatos”…always spelled it (and seen it) as “tomatoes”. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/4 "2011-06-07T02:35:26Z")
The plural of to-MAY-to is to-MAH-to. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/5 "2011-06-07T03:07:33Z")
You left off the correct choice: “Let’s call the whole thing off!” ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/6 "2011-06-07T03:10:54Z")
I spell it tomatoes and potatoes if someone else will see it so I don’t get sucked into an argument about it but in stuff that’s for my eyes only I have too much respect for E to whore her out like that. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/7 "2011-06-07T03:31:39Z")
The rule is to add es if the o is preceded by a consonant. There are 80 million uses of “tomatoes” on Google, but only 2.3 million uses of “tomatos.” Also, every spell check I’ve used counts the latter as spelled incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/8 "2011-06-07T03:37:25Z")
It should be “tomatoes” and “potatoes” - like the words “heroes” and “tornadoes”. Unfortunately though, as we all know, if enough people spell a word wrongly for a long enough period of time, sooner or later it becomes accepted as being correct. But I vow to keep spelling these words the way they’re supposed to be! ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/9 "2011-06-07T03:47:05Z")
Problem with “tomatos” is that it looks like the last syllable should be pronounced “-toss” instead of “-toes”. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/10 "2011-06-07T07:06:40Z")
Both ways are correct, but -oes is preferred. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/11 "2011-06-07T07:33:30Z")
Potato’s and Tomato’s What? ~os looks wrong to me (despite what the dictionaries say) - makes the writer look less than fully literate, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/12 "2011-06-07T15:30:35Z")
The plural of _tomato_ is _tomatoes_. The plural of _potato_ is _spuds_. Seriously, I try to avoid writing the plural of _potato_ because I can never quite remember if it has an _e_ or not. I don’t want people to think I’m as stupid as Dan Quayle, so I either write _spuds_ or look it up. Writing _spuds_ is a lot easier. Oddly, I never have much trouble remembering that _tomatoes_ has an _e_. Maybe that’s because until I was about 15 years old I was convinced the singular had an _e_: tomatoe. ---
**Author:** ![britespark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@britespark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/britespark)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/13 "2013-02-16T21:39:25Z")
‘Tomatos’ refers to the fruit, ‘tomatoes’ refers to the vegetable, and ‘tomatose’ refers to the sugar. I’m not sure if ‘potatoes’ follow the same rule, but I would assume that it possibly does for the vegetable and sugar, but not for the fruit since potato is clearly not a fruit. Although the plant itself does produce fruit. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/14 "2013-02-16T21:43:36Z")
Tomatos. Looks like a Greek word. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/15 "2013-02-16T21:58:25Z")
For the digits on Marisa’s nether limbs, the plural is Tomei toes. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/16 "2013-02-20T09:39:45Z")
Tomatoes - but I wouldn’t capitalise the word unless it was at the beginning of a sentence. It’s not a proper noun as far as I’m aware. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/17 "2013-02-20T12:33:36Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Problem with “tomatos” is that it looks like the last syllable should be pronounced “-toss” instead of “-toes”. As in “Dory-toss”, the well known corn chip. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/18 "2013-02-20T17:32:47Z")
"Problem with “tomatos” is that it looks like the last syllable should be pronounced “-toss” instead of “-toes”. " That’s what it looks like to you? Tomatoss? The t-o-m-a-t-o part didn’t give you any clue as to pronunciation? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/19 "2013-02-20T18:31:40Z")
There’s no good reason to add a “e”. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581/20 "2013-02-20T21:39:30Z")
I just buy them one at a time. Issue avoided. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plural-of-tomato-and-potato/584581.md?page=2)