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In English the plural is cacti, with cactuses and cactus also accepted. In general, trying to treat English as a rule-based language, not an amalgamation of spe
by twhb 5y ago
In English the plural is cacti, with cactuses and cactus also accepted. In general, trying to treat English as a rule-based language, not an amalgamation of special cases, will result in mistakes. Like “gooses”, “passerbies”, “milleniums”, “datas”, “childs”, “criterions”, “foots”, “mans”. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cactus https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cactus
- TchoBeer 5y agoIf OP said "cacti is also accepted" I would agree. Instead OP said "cactuses is wrong" which is what I take issue with.
- SamBam 5y agoUmmm.... OP (or rather GP) said "Cacti is a plural of cactus." You replied with "Cactus is (also) an English word and thus its plural is cactuses." Only one of you made an assertion that implied that there was only one correct answer.
- TchoBeer 5y agoThat seems like an overly-close reading of GP. I don't think they would pointing out the other pluralization of cactus unless they thought there was something off about the one the article uses.
- corin_ 5y agoBetter an overly close reading (which I think is actually correct) than the one in which you literally misquoted their words inside quote marks.