NO NO NO: You don't form plurals in English by always adding an S!

I was at the store last night and in a display of Christmas toys I saw a box of toy airplanes titled “Aircrafts”! HEY—the plural of aircraft is aircraft! I have also recently seen a lot of use of the word “softwares”. The word “software” is already PLURAL! The only way to properly indicate one item of software is to say something like “a piece of software” or “this item of software”; when referring to one piece of software it is probably much better to say “application” or “program”, both of which are already singular. These uses have primarly come from non-native speakers but I am seeing them creep into english spoken by those born and raised in the U.S. Do us all a favor: correct people when they say “softwares” or “aircrafts”. Hey, I'm sorry we have irregular plural forms in english; now get over it and learn to use the language CORRECTLY!

Posted by Ray Trygstad | Category: Rant | 10:57 AM