I rant about this quite often and it made me think that it may be entirely possible to create a blog devoted to this topic. So many rules and then... so many exceptions - with no rhyme or reason.
Part I of this series then:
Plurals of Nouns ending in -au, -eau, -eu
This is what Hana's textbook says:
Nouns that end in -au, -eau, and -eu take an "x" in plural forms.
Examples:
le rideau/les rideaux
le bateau/les bateaux
un cheveu/des cheveux
Exceptions:
The words pneu, bleu and landau take an "s" in plural.
In fact, there are four additional words that take an "s" instead of an "x", but they are not exactly everyday words. These are sarrau, unau, lieu (a type of fish; watch out, if you are talking about Lieu as in a place, it still takes an "x" in plural!), and emeu.
No explanations on why these 7 words forgo the rule and end in an "s" instead. If there are only 7 words, why not just make it easy for everyone and just make them take an "x" instead of an "s"?? Wouldn't that be simpler and easier for everybody? What does the Academie Francaise do exactly, could they not issue a mandate on this matter?
In the meantime, Hana will just have to remember which ones are the exceptions. The French language sure is quite taxing on one's memory!
No comments:
Post a Comment