Yes, thanks Latishya, in hindsight it's clear. Because Faldage said "are regular" I was fooled into thinking that referred to their state when coming into the language, which didn't make sense to me. I see now that he meant they become regularised, being slotted by English speakers into the existing framework of forming regular parts of speech. That's to be expected.

However, I still don't see the need to pluralise it whatever its orgin may be. tsuwm said "and, as the phrase 'let's play with our Lego' probly sounds a bit odd to a kid, I've always heard Legos, and never once have I been inclined to correct them." I've never heard or used Legos, and I would say to a kid "let's get your Lego out," not Legos. It's a collective noun like sheep or fish, describing the whole collection of bricks and other little bits that comprise a kid's store of Lego, or the type of thing they are, not the individual component. This is true even if it has become more than just a brand name and now applies generically to other brands of click-together bricks. Why not say "look at the sheeps" or "there's lots of grains in that silo"? It's the same kind of word.

Also, whilst I appreciate zmjexhd's amusing suggestion of Hellenizing the ending (and wish I'd said it first ), of course it is only accidentally the same ending as a regular Greek singular masculine noun (and only in the Anglicized plural), and it makes more sense to give a Danish loan word an English ending than a Greek one. However, in this case I don't think it should be given any plural ending because it is already a collective noun. So although I don't share the peeve of the OP (I could care less about Lego), I think he is technically correct.

Last edited by The Pook; 04/15/2008 12:09 AM.