Question

Is Hippopotamus both singular and plural?

Answer 1

Hint: The word ‘singular’ denotes the quantity of one. In simple words, it is used to refer to a person or thing that is one. The plural, on the other hand, is used to denote a person or thing that is more than one. For example, Pencil is singular whereas pencils are plural.

Complete answer:
The hippopotamus is an animal that is singular if we see it in the context of singular and plural. The correct spelling of plural depends on what the singular word ends in. It is a common rule that to change a word from singular to plural ‘s’ is added at the end of the word. However, there are different rules for different words.

Different rules are applied regarding pluralization depending on what the singular word ends in. If the singular word ends with ‘s’, ‘sh’, or ‘ss, then ‘es’ is added to make the word plural. The hippopotamus is a word that ends with the letter ‘s’ and to make it plural ‘es’ must be added at the end.

Hence, the plural form of Hippopotamus is Hippopotamuses. However, some English and Latin words have unpredictable plurals. The word ‘Hippopotami’ is also accepted as a plural of Hippopotamus.

We can conclude, Hippopotamus is not both singular and plural. A Hippopotamus is singular whereas the plural form of the same is Hippopotamuses or Hippopotami.

Note:
- Most singular nouns are made plural by simply adding an ‘s’ at the end of the word.
- There are some nouns that do not follow any rule of pluralization and must therefore be memorized.