how to write the plural of latin and greek words in english

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 07:34 AM 10-26-98 EST, MAGarland at AOL.COM wrote:

>In the U.S., it seems that in common usage "bacteria" is becoming singular as
>well as plural --"A deadly bacteria"  in news reports, for instance.  So
>there's an answer to the original question--choose one form and use it for
>both singular and plural!

A fate similar to poor "datum", the singular of "data", which has
essentially disappeared from everyday English, leaving us with "This data is
..."



Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
office:          312-922-9410 ext. 317 (voice-mail)
home:     630-759-4280
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http:    www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_lammers.htm

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