Question

The plural of ‘Maid-servant’ is ‘maids-servant’
A) Yes
B) No

Answer 1

Hint: Two words namely: singular and plural. When a noun is singular it means that there is only an object or person or when a noun is a plural it means that there is more than one object or person. For example, man – men; tooth – teeth; foot – feet.

Complete answer:
Singular nouns can be made plural by simply adding – S or Es to the end of the word. There are different rules for the pluralization of the words depending on what letter of the noun it ends with.

There are certain rules of plurals and they are:
1) To make regular nouns plural – put ‘S’ at the end of the word. For example, Cat – cats; dog – dogs.
2) When a singular noun ends with – S, SS, SH, CH, X or Z – then in such cases put ‘ES’ to the end of the word. For example, marsh – marshes; lunch – lunches; tax – taxes.

The plural of ‘Maid-servant’ is ‘maids-servant’
Option A) Yes – this is an incorrect answer because the plural of maid-servant is not maids-servant.
Option B) No – this is the correct answer because the plural of maid-servant is ‘maid-servants’ rather than maids-servant and the meaning of maidservants is a female domestic servant.

Maidservant is also known as attendants, nursemaids, maids-in-waiting, domestics, etc. However, suppose the question asks about the plural form of maid then it is maids but here in this question it is asking the plural form of ‘maid-servant’ so, instead of maids-servant the correct pluralization form is ‘maid-servants’. So, we will only make the plural form of the second word that is the servant (and the plural form of servant is servants).

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: There are certain rules of plurals and they are:
1) If a singular noun ends with – S or Z then in such cases you just double the S or Z before putting ‘ES’ to the end of the word. For example, gas – gasses; fez – fezzes.
2) If a noun ending with F or FE then add ‘-VE’ before adding ‘S’ to the word ending. For example, wife – wives; wolf – wolves.
3) If a noun word ends with ‘Y’ then put ‘IES’ to the end of the word because ‘Y’ is consonant. For example, city – cities; puppy – puppies.
4) If the singular noun ends with O, put ‘ES’ to the end of the word. For example, potato – potatoes; tomato – tomatoes.
5) When a singular noun ends with ‘US’ simply put ‘I’ at the end of the word. For example, focus – foci; cactus – cacti.
6) When a singular noun ends with ‘IS’ then put ‘ES’ at the end of the word. For example, analysis – analyses; ellipses – ellipses.
7) When a singular noun ends with ‘’ON” the put ‘A’ at the end of the word to make it plural. For example, criterion – criteria; phenomenon – phenomena.
8) There are some cases where we do not change the ending word to make it plural. For example, sheep – sheep; deer – deer; species – species.