There
seems to be a trend lately to put an unnecessary s on the end of words, which
in their plural form, do not need one. The words in question are being misused
so often that they seem to be becoming part of the English language. We need to preserve the language properly
rather than agreeing with the mistakes and integrating them into our language.
I
am all for new words if they are useful and relevant. However, if the words
“bae” or “boo” are used to describe a romantic partner then the miscreant who is
using the word should be taken out and made to grovel apologetically in a
public place for such a heinous crime against the English language.
The
first word that is given a wrongly placed s is fruit. We have a piece of fruit,
a bowl of fruit, some fruit, lots of fruit but we never, under any
circumstances have fruits. The plural of fruit is fruit. No s should darken the
end of this word.
The
next word, which is maimed with an evil and unnecessary letter s, is cereal.
Again we can have a bowl of cereal, some cereal, a cereal bar but NEVER
cereals. There is no s! Again, the plural of cereal is cereal.
My
next contender for incorrectly pluralised word of the year is sport. We play
sport, we watch sport, and there are many different kinds of sport to watch on television
or participate in. That does not mean, however, that the word sports can be
used. The plural of sport is sport.
My
final example of victims of the extra s is the word Lego. Children and adults
enjoy playing with Lego bricks or they are playing with Lego. They may have
many Lego sets but they do not have Legos. The plural of Lego is Lego or even
Lego bricks.
My
abhorrence at the misuse of the letter s has grown over the last two or three
years. The more I hear these wrongly spelt and pronounced words, the angrier I
get. I am like the Incredible Hulk of the grammar world wanting to rip the
heads off the people who recklessly add the letter s to any words they choose.
Next time you find yourself adding an s to a word stop and think whether it
should really be there, you wouldn't want the grammar hulk to find out.
