Answer: Is 'series' singular or plural

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Today's question is about whether or not the word series is singular or plural. Because the English language can be a touch on the unexpected side, the answer to that is that it's both.

The normal approach in English to creating plurals is to add an 's': cats, dogs, books, fans. But where a word already ends in 's', what happens then?

English has several approaches to words that end in 's' in their singular form. Nobody doubts that the plural of kiss is kisses, for example. Where the word ends with an 's' or 'z' sound but not the actual letter 's', the plural 's' is added, so we get roses and hoses, for example. But series is one of that class of words where the singular and plural are the same. To find a similar example, the word species behaves in the same way, because they are both words that we've borrowed directly from Latin. A brief summary of the etymology of series can be found at a favourite site here. English also offers words of non-Latin derivation where our singular and plural are the same. Any good New Zealander knows that you can have one sheep and you can have ten sheep. It is also possible to correctly use either fish or fishes as a plural, depending on context. This page has an interesting discussion about that difference from the usual constructions.

Let's have a couple of examples of usage from a couple of favourite characters:

Jim looked over the phone accounts of their murder suspect. "You see this series of calls to this number, here? That's the one we follow up."

Blair shook his head. "Come on, Jim. Hundreds, probably thousands of tv series in the world, and you get attached to Bonanza?"

According to this page there was once a plural serieses but it's no longer in use. Certainly my New Zealand Oxford dictionary declares that the plural of series is, well, series, as does Webster's New Collegiate dictionary. Whether you're discussing a single series, or many, you only need the one word spelled the same.

Comments

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I'd love for us to still use serieses! Then we could have sheepses...

Thank you for a lovely clear explanation of another bit of our endearingly daft language.

[bluewolf458.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I wasn't sure how many 's'es there were in 'crocuses' and called them 'crocuseseseses'. I think I was about ten before I worked out that it was just 'crocuses'.

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

If you've ever read Discworld, Nanny Ogg had a similar but different problem with banana. Or is it banananana? ;-)

[bluewolf458.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten that one! :-)

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Nanny Ogg knew how to start spelling 'banana', but didn't know how you stopped. :oD

I love Nanny Ogg. I love her adoration of her cat, Greebo, and that Casonunda fell so hopelessly in love with her.

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is daft, but ours, right?

[whymzycal.livejournal.com]

I never knew until now that I wanted "sheepses." But I do! So very much.