# Since when is 'z' used to indicate plural? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 22, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-z-used-to-indicate-plural/170422 "2003-04-22T20:51:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-z-used-to-indicate-plural/170422/41 "2003-05-04T16:19:04Z")
In 1968, there was a top 10 hit in the US titled “Noboby But Me” by **The Human Beinz**. ---
**Author:** ![Thunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a8b319/32.png) [@Thunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thunder)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-z-used-to-indicate-plural/170422/42 "2003-05-04T18:43:51Z")
If you ever walked into a “Sheetz” store, you would spotaneously explode at the selection of BurgerZ, Hot DogZ, NachoZ, and CoffeeZ that they sell. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-z-used-to-indicate-plural/170422/43 "2003-05-04T19:25:52Z")
Well, [z] is one of the three allomorphs for the /s/ plural suffix in Standard American English, so if we Linguists could only get the folks who make Scrabble[sup]tm[/sup] to include the open & close square brackets, the issue would be a nonissue. Come to think of it, is there such a thing as a Scrabble[sup]tm[/sup] set for the International Phonetic Alphabet (not, mind you, the alpha-bravo one of NATO fame–the one used by linguists)? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-z-used-to-indicate-plural/170422/44 "2003-05-05T15:21:52Z")
But **Monty** when will we get 1337 Scrabble[sup]tm[/sup]. That will be a sign of the apocolypse. 4|\*0(01’/|\*53 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-z-used-to-indicate-plural/170422.md?page=2)