You can add an -s or -es to most words to create a plural ... except for when you can't.
⠀
Let's start with SPAGHETTI.
Yes, spaghetti. Next time you dive into a hot plate of spaghetti, take a moment to appreciate each individual spaghetto. It's amazing to think that this beloved, stringy pasta has been a plural all along.
⠀
KINE
If you think the plural of cow is cows, you're right. But, if you want to impress your bovine buddies with your knowledge of, oh, Old English, try kine. Kine is an archaic (read: not often found outside musty old books) plural of cow.
Fun fact: kine is the only noun in English whose plural shares no letters with its singular form!
⠀
NIBLINGS
If you're lucky enough to have several nieces or nephews (and you can't always recall their names), refer to them as your niblings. Niblings is a gender-neutral term that encompasses both nieces and nephews.
⠀
PRII
In 2011, Toyota stated that when you see many of the company's Prius cars parked together, they're called ... Prii.
To determine the plural, Toyota ran a six-week campaign, during which they invited online communities to participate in the discussion. More than 1.8 million votes were cast, and the company says Prii beat out its four competitors: Prius, Priuses, Priem, or Pri.
⠀
OPERA
Music history buffs know an opus is "a piece of classical music by a particular composer." It's typically followed by the number, which indicates when the piece was written, such as Chopin's Études, Op. 10 and 25. In Latin, opus means "work, labor, a work."
Technically, the plural of opus is opera (thanks again, Latin). However, the native English plural, opuses, is also acceptable.
⠀
SPHINGES
Planning a trip to Egypt? Be sure to see the Great Sphinx of Giza.
A sphinx is an imaginary creature "having the head of a man or an animal and the body of a lion." If you want to see more sphinges—yep, that's the technical Greek plural of sphinx—you can visit the Sphinx of Hatshepsut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Sphinx of Taharqo at the British Museum in London, or take an online tour.
