Heroes with Gyros and other O-plurals

You say, “potato,” and I say, “potatoes.”

Then you say, “dynamo,” and I say, “dynamos.”

The English language is filled with odd exceptions, particularly for correct spellings.

A group of superheroes would have to eat a big bunch of super-gyros to figure out all of these plural closings for words that end in “o.”

Oh, my! There it goes – with all those uh-ohs!

Take a look:

albinos

altos

avocados

banjos

cantos

casinos

cellos

curios

dynamos

echoes

embargoes

Eskimos

Filipinos

gyros

halos

heroes

infernos

kangaroos

kilos

kimonos

lassos

logos

memos

patios

photos

pianos

Picassos

piccolos

potatoes

provisos

quartos

radios

rodeos

solos

sombreros

stilettos

superheroes

tacos

tobaccos

tomatoes

torpedoes

torsos

typos

vetoes

zoos

OK, it gets worse.

Some words ending with “o” may be pluralized with or without the addition of an “e.” IN such cases, both ways are considered correct

buffaloes / buffalos (or even just “buffalo,” as in “Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam.”)

dominoes / dominos

ghettoes / ghetto

innuendoes / innuendos

mangoes / mangos

mosquitoes / mosquitos

mottoes / mottos

tornadoes / tornados

volcanoes / volcanos

 

Then there’s more. Watch out for homonyms!

Consider this example: When the accountant zeroes in on our monthly expenses, he usually comes up with a few extra zeros.

Even a spell-checker won’t tag that one.

Pass the dictionary, would you, please?

Related Items:

• Idioms Unpacked: Eat Your Words
• Idioms Unpacked: Hell Bent for Leather
• Idioms Unpacked: Let the Cat Out of the Bag
• Idioms Unpacked: Well-Heeled

 

 Image/s:  

Superheroes by Digital Rampage

Creative Commons Licensing/Wikipedia Commons Photos

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