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Thu 19 Aug, 2004 09:18 am
What's the plural of the word, "genre"?
BTW, HBDDA2K! HOAY?
just what you thought it was: genres
OK. I thought maybe it was one of those weird ones. "Genre" being both singular and plural, or "genrae" being the plural.
But it seems that I am the weird one.
Genrae Tsae
Generally it is words taken directly from Latin which have the 'ae' plural ending. Genre is taken from the French adaptation of the Latin word 'genus', thus we just add a nice easy 's' to the end.
and as it is French the pronunciation of singular and plural is the same as the 's' is silent
Vivien wrote:and as it is French the pronunciation of singular and plural is the same as the 's' is silent
Oh, now that's interesting! I originally posted this thread because I thought "genres" (audible "s") sounded incorrect. However, being uneducated, I had no grounds for definatively stating why it was incorrect.
So, thanks!
General Tsao
Vivien is correct re the silent 's' but you won't be laughed out of the room if you speak it, General. As is the case with many French words we've adopted into English, the pronunciation is often approximate, at best...
Thanks - love the humour in some of the replies!
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