Originally Posted By: beck123
My question is, Once these words enter English, how obligated are we to follow the original language in pluralization - or, for that matter, any aspect of their use, including their original meaning?


Good question. I guess we're as obligated as we want to be... for instance the usual plural of forum is forums and not fora, and data is often used as a singular mass noun. zucchini, broccoli, spaghetti are often used with singular verbs. very was borrowed from a French word meaning "true".

There are a lot of words that are plural in their original languages but that are uncontroversially singular in English: agenda, erotica, opera, candelabra, paraphernalia, trivia, graffiti, candelabra, stamina.

The belief that we must look to another language to discover how to use English words is known as the etymological fallacy.

Last edited by goofy; 06/12/2010 12:20 AM.