grammatical number - What is the optional plural form of a word that ends in “‑y”?


I guess “optional plural” is the correct term. I’m referring to things like



  • It can be found at the following location(s).

  • Please pick up your ticket(s).


But how do I do that to a word that ends in ‑y? Take category for example: “category(s)” doesn’t seem correct, because categorys is a misspelling. But everything else I have tried looks ridiculous.


What’s the correct approach here?



Answer



Words that end in -Cy regularly go to -ies, while those that end in -Vy regularly go to -Vys (where C means a consonant and V means a vowel).



  • bunny > bunnies, telly > tellies, category > categories

  • Monday > Mondays, boy > boys, monkey > monkeys


But money > monies is irregular.


You could write



  • Please select your preferred category or categories.

  • Please select your preferred category(-ies).

  • Please select one or more categories.



Stackoverflow Content


If you have a computer program that does the equivalent of:


printf("%d %s(s) selected.\n", count, thingie);

Then you are automatically doing it wrong. A computer should know how to count. And inflect. It is pure laziness — and not the good kind, either — on the part of programmer to write



1 file(s) deleted.

That sort of thing is extremely aggravating. Please do not do it. In the specific case of having a category for a thingie, you would use


printf("%d categor%s selected.\n", count, count == 1 ? "y" : "ies");

Accept no substitutes.


In the more general case, you need an English noun inflector.


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