PICNIC permanent (not -ant) permissible perseverance (not perser-) personal or personnel? Sarah has taken all her PERSONAL belongings with her. She was upset by a barrage of PERSONAL remarks. All the PERSONNEL will be trained in first aid. Write to the PERSONNEL officer and see if a vacancy is coming up. (Note the spelling of personnel with -nn-) Note Personnel Officers are now often called Human Resources Officers. perspicacity or perspicuity? PERSPICACITY = discernment, shrewdness, clearness of understanding PERSPICUITY = lucidity, clearness of expression phenomenon (singular) phenomena (plural) See FOREIGN PLURALS. physical physically physique Piccadilly piccalilli picnic picnicked, picnicking, picnicker See SOFT c AND SOFT G. 159 PIECE piece See PEACE OR PIECE?. pieriod Wrong spelling. See PERIOD. pigmy/pygmy (singular) pigmies/pygmies (plural) pining or pinning? pine +ing = pining pin + ing = pinning See ADDING ENDINGS (i), (ii). plateau (singular) plateaus or plateaux (plural) See FOREIGN PLURALS. plausible pleasant (not plesant) pleasure plural See SINGULAR OR PLURAL?. plurals (i) Most words form their plural by adding -s: door doors; word words; bag bags; rainbow rainbows; shop shops; car cars (ii) Words ending in a sibilant (a hissing sound) add -es to form their plural. This adds a syllable to their pronunciation and so you can always hear when this has happened: bus buses; box boxes; fez fezes/fezzes; bench benches; bush bushes; hutch hutches. (iii) Words ending in -y are a special case. Look at the letter that precedes the final -y. If the word ends in vowel + y, just add -s to form the plural (vowels: a, e, i, o, u): 160 day days donkey donkeys boy boys guy guys If the word ends in consonant + y, change the y to i, and add -es: lobby lobbies opportunity opportunities body bodies century centuries This rule is well worth learning by heart. There are no exceptions. Remember an easy example as a key like boy/boys. (iv) Words ending in -o generally add -s to form the plural: piano pianos banjo banjos studio studios soprano sopranos photo photos kimono kimonos There are nine exceptions which add -es: domino dominoes echo echoes embargo embargoes hero heroes mosquito mosquitoes no noes potato potatoes tomato tomatoes torpedo torpedoes About a dozen words can be either -s or -es and so you'll be safe with these. Interestingly, some of these words until recently have required -es 161 PLURALS PLURALS (words like cargo, mango, memento, volcano). The trend is towards the regular -s ending and some words are in a transitional stage. (v) Words ending in -f and -fe generally add -s to form the plural: roof roofs cliff cliffs handkerchief handkerchiefs carafe carafes giraffe giraffes There are 13 exceptions which end in -ves in the plural. You can always hear when this is the case, but here is the complete list for reference: knife/knives; life/lives; wife/wives; elf/elves; self/selves; shelf/s helves; calf/calves; half/halves; leaf/leaves; sheaf/sheaves; thief/thieves; loaf/loaves; wolf/wolves. Four words can be either -fs or -ves: hoofs/hooves; scarfs/scarves; turfs/turves; wharfs/wharves. (vi) Some nouns are quite irregular in the formation of their plural. Some words don't change: aircraft, cannon, bison, cod, deer, sheep, trout Some have a choice about changing or staying the same in the plural: buffalo or buffaloes Eskimo or Eskimos Other everyday words have very peculiar plurals which perhaps we take for granted: man men ox oxen woman women mouse mice 162 POSSIBLE OR PROBABLE? child children louse lice foot feet die dice goose geese After goose/geese, mongoose/mongooses seems very strange but is correct. See also FOREIGN PLURALS. pneumonia possability Wrong spelling. See POSSIBILITY. possable Wrong spelling. See POSSIBLE. possess possessed, possessing possession possessive apostrophes See APOSTROPHES (ii), (iii). possessive pronouns No apostrophes are needed with possessive pronouns: That is MINE. That is OURS. That is THINE. That is YOURS. That is HERS. That is THEIRS. That is HIS. That is ITS. possessor possibility possible (not -able) possible or probable? POSSIBLE = could happen PROBABLE = very likely to happen 163 POTATO potato (singular) potatoes (plural) See PLURALS (iv). practical or practicable? A PRACTICAL person is one who is good at doing and making things. A PRACTICAL suggestion is a sensible, realistic one that is likely to succeed. A PRACTICABLE suggestion is merely one that will work. The word 'practicable' means 'able to be put into practice'. It does not carry all the additional meanings of 'practical'. practice or practise? Use these exemplar sentences as a guide: PRACTICE makes perfect. An hour's PRACTICE every day will yield returns. The young doctor has built up a busy PRACTICE. In the examples above, 'practice' is a noun. You should PRACTISE every day. PRACTISE now! In these examples, 'practise' is a verb. precede or proceed? PRECEDE = to go in front of PROCEED = to carry on, especially after having stopped prefer preferred, preferring, preference See ADDING ENDINGS (iv). prehaps Wrong spelling. See PERHAPS. prejudice (not predjudice) 164 . PLURALS. physical physically physique Piccadilly piccalilli picnic picnicked, picnicking, picnicker See SOFT c AND SOFT G. 159 PIECE piece See PEACE OR PIECE?. pieriod Wrong spelling. See PERIOD. pigmy/pygmy (singular)