craft n
adj small, contemporary, traditional, local, Indian, alien, native, handmade, ancient, unmanned
noun art., museum, .store, .movement, .show, landing., food, .shop, college. verb learn., land., sell, teach, practice, feature., hone., master., .orbit
10725 | 0.82 M
qualify v
noun student., Job, team, .loan, .Medicaid, .benefit, ·car, .aid, teacher, person, candidate, background., credit, income, position misc .for, .as, who., enough., highly., must, order., fail., uniquely.
9268 | 0.94 N
French n
adj fluent, classic, excellent, broken, passable, impeccable, high-school noun English, German, Italian, .subtitle, word, century., .toast verb speak, learn., translate., teach., study., fight, open, publish., lead, attack 9242 | 0.95
earnings (PL) n
adj annual, high, corporate, future, strong, average, quarterly, net, proJected noun .growth, company, year, percent, time., .share, quarter, stock, rate, analyst verb report, increase, estimate, expect, .grow, .rise, ·fall, boost., base., .decline 10946 | 0.8 M N
waste v
noun .time, money, energy, life, water, resource, hour, minute, effort, .breath, tax, space misc .away, ·precious, .little, .valuable, lay., afford.
9136 | 0.96
asleep j
noun bed, night, wheel, couch, chair, baby, morning, minute, right, class, dinner, dawn misc fall, she, when, still, while, sound, fast, until
9935 | 0.88 F
porch n
adj front, screened, wooden, wide, screened-in, covered, sleeping, enclosed noun back., step, house, ·light, door, .swing, chair, floor, side, roof verb sit., stand., walk, wait, lean, climb, .overlook, hang, cross, paint
10067 | 0.87 F
controversial j
noun issue, decision, figure, program, topic, book, case, subJect, plan, proposal, film, policy misc most, more, very, become, highly, remain, less, somewhat
9267 | 0.94
painful j
noun experience, memory, process, thing, death, lesson, decision, reminder, past, moment, procedure, period misc very, more, too, most, less, long, often, difficult
9118 | 0.96
congressman n
adj democratic, conservative, veteran, influential, disgraced, distinguished, incumbent noun Republican., senator, new, office, committee., question, .thanks, freshman. verb let, thank, agree, vote, introduce, welcome, elect, sponsor, chair, excuse 10614 | 0.82 S
mama n
adj big, hot, happy, dear, sick, sweet, red-hot noun daddy, .Papa, .boy, baby, day, .bear, kitchen,
25. Irregular plurals
The following are the major categories of irregular plural forms in English, along with the most frequent
lemmas for each category. Note that most of the Latin forms are limited primarily to formal, academic
writing, and that many irregular forms also have a newer, regular variant (e.g. oxen/oxes, fish/fishes,
syllabi/syllabuses).
f v [spelling]
lives 51475, leaves 16644, wives 7066, shelves 4778, wolves 3673, knives 2694, thieves 2198,
calves 1669, selves 1396, halves 1294, hooves 1013, scarves 952, housewives 884, elves 840,
loaves 803, bookshelves 599, sheaves 136
o oe [spelling]
potatoes 9051, tomatoes 8258, heroes 6045, mosquitoes 2026, echoes 1425, volcanoes 1083,
negroes 821, frescoes 483, dominoes 332, torpedoes 324, embargoes 159, cargoes 147
only singular form
people 657689, police 82960, staff 41009, fish 34722, personnel 13744, aircraft 1^4, deer 11094,
(top 35 forms)
salmon 8271, cattle 7618, sheep 6128, trout 4866, tuna 3507, militia 3494, livestock 3388,
spacecraft 3213, clergy 3152, offspring 3005, infantry 2944, sperm 2796, poultry 2365,
moose 2173, cavalry 2046, catfish 1961, dice 1823, gentry 1325, herring 1298, bison 1297,
pike 1283, squid 1186, cod 1126, flora 999, fauna 925, caribou 922, shellfish 907, reindeer 894
only plural form
series 52396, thanks 44064, species 34302, sales 33544, clothes 25951, means 22489, works 18458,
(top 35 forms)
statistics 11616, earnings 11096, headquarters 10773, corps 9378, ethics 9161, odds 8722,
Olympics 7829, dynamics 5705, graphics 5383, remains 4109, surroundings 3156,
credentials 2735, binoculars 2445, sneakers 2134, humanities 2126, grassroots 2015,
outskirts 1880, scissors 1783, barracks 1714, belongings 1637, riches 15ц, pajamas 1448,
demographics 1220, fundamentals 1212, residuals 1186, whereabouts 1127, essentials 1053,
auspices 878
us/um i (Latin)
alumni 2175, stimuli 2018, fungi 1305, nuclei 1069, cacti 365, foci 293, pylori 281, syllabi 264,
radii 151, loci 150, cognoscenti 145, literati 140
a ae (Latin)
larvae 1599, algae 1547, nebulae 752, vertebrae 554, supernovae 488, antennae 483,
minutiae 327, formulae 220, personae 172, vitae 163, pneumoniae 141, hyphae 130,
sequelae 147
um a (Latin)
data 74049, media 49780, bacteria 7225, curricula 2458, memorabilia 1282, spectra 921,
strata 772, maxima 261, consortia 198, fora 195, memoranda 167, ova 130, referenda 107
ix ces (Latin)
matrices 496, appendices 115, interstices 114
sis ses
analyses 8649, crises 3170, hypotheses 2651, diagnoses 1015, parentheses 520, theses 396,
emphases 329, oases 150, neuroses 131
other Latin (on a,
criteria 10482, phenomena 3887, genera 399, schemata 189, stigmata 117
us era, a ata)
eau eaux (French)
tableaux 256
-men and related
women 205388, men 151710, gentlemen 8983, fishermen 4128, businessmen 2868,
forms (top 20 forms)
freshmen 2073, policemen 2050, congressmen 1654, gunmen 1233, servicemen 927,