Which of the following are plural forms of words: alumna, automata, bacteria, comma, criteria, data, errata, media? Some nonstandard plurals appear more often than the word’s singular form because of the very nature of the word. Since the default in English writing is the singular form, these peculiar plurals often trip up writers. The most common error is to use “this” when the word “these” is the correct choice, and even seasoned writers often look askance at the correct choice, since it’s far from the most common.
Regarding the question that opened the article, six of the eight listed words are plurals. A more detailed explanation of each follows.
- Alumna is the feminine form of alumnus, a graduate of a school Having male and female forms of a word is uncommon in English, and this term is further confused by the similarity of the plural forms: alumna becomes alumnae, while more than one alumnus are alumni.
- Automata is an accepted plural form of automaton, as is the more standard automatons. This form is not seen as often precisely because the word is more common; a plural form ending in –s probably emerged as a mistake but became standard because it “looked right.”
- Bacteria always travel in groups – except in technical scientific papers it’s atypical to refer to a lone bacterium. This is one of those tricky words – does the phrase “bacteria are” really sound more correct than “bacteria is?”
- Comma really is singular, although if this article were posted in April it may very well have argued that the singular form is “commum.” Commas are a magnet for writing errors, but not in the arena of proper plurals.
- Criteria are “standards or tests by which individual things or people may be compared and judged.” Generally those tests come in groups, but if selected one at a time, each is a criterion.
- Data are collected pieces of information. In the electronic age those data (yes, that is the correct form) are often stored together on a single electronic medium, and thought of in the singular. However, each bit of information is its own datum, and the word “data” is properly perceived as a plural.
- Errata are errors; a single one is an erratum. Generally the word is used to title a section of such errors, and as such the plural is correct; it’s rare to find opportunity to refer to a single erratum, as mistakes in writing often come in groups. This is a word often used, and misused, by editors.
- Media is perhaps the most egregious error in nonstandard plurals. A medium is a “format for communicating or presenting information,” be that format a television, hard drive, radio broadcast, or dictionary. Members of the media (e.g., reporters) are among the worst offenders in this case; it’s extremely common to read or hear a story in which “the media is demanding answers” or whatnot. The media are a group, and deserve to be acknowledge as such, even by their own members. This also applies to one’s electronic media, as mentioned above in the discussion about data.
English is a fluid language and these unusual plurals may very well become accepted singular forms in time. That time, however, is not quite yet, and writers should take care to use them correctly.
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