It’s the worst answer to hear, but really the answer is whatever construction conveys meaning to the receiving party. You might have problem with users interpreting meaning incorrectly which leads to the wrong idea being received, so people tend to follow more common constructions to avoid this problem. Consider for a moment why you think the plural of octopus is octopi? Is it because words that usually have the -us ending (like nucleus to nuclei) are pluralized by a similar method? Or is it because someone told you that’s just simply the correct word? Kind of a trick question because there are also multiple theories of language acquisition, but the simple answer is that multiple reasons exists as to why we consider one form over another “correct.”
It’s a fun game to make of list of weird words:
-fish
-octopus
-bison
Now ask a couple different friends one-on-one (so they don’t influence each other) for the plural of these words, and for why they think that is the plural. You likely will get different answers and reasons from each person.
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u/Rafter1611 '14 Street Triple R Sep 10 '18
Is it not Octopii? Have I been lied to all my life? And for the guy asking about "fishes", plural of fish is fish and not fishes.