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DU Veterans! Explain something to me, please.

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Blue-Jay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:08 PM
Original message
DU Veterans! Explain something to me, please.
The plural of "court-martial". Why is it "courts-martial"?

What's wrong with calling it "court-martials"?

I don't get it. :shrug:

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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:09 PM
Response to Original message
1. Because
in compound words like that, we pluralize the noun, not the adjective.

Attorneys-General
Mothers-in-law
Courts-martial

since we don't have plural adjectives in English, we have to pluralize the noun.
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Blue-Jay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:11 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Ah. Thanks.
I knew the rule regarding that, but I had gotten into the habit of considering it one word since I was a kid.

Mystery solved.
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Burma Jones Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:09 PM
Response to Original message
2. It's a French Construction
Martial means military, so several courts would still be described as military, not militaries
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mn9driver Donating Member (877 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:11 PM
Response to Original message
3. Martial is the adjective.
Court is the noun. A very old term, which is why it looks backwards.
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trof Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:13 PM
Response to Original message
5. Excellent explanations all.
I can add nothing.
So why did I?
;-)
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On the Road Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-04 04:52 PM
Response to Original message
6. Actually, at Some Point
the expression stops being French and becomes part of English. At that point I personally think it's OK to make a plural according to the host language. (Not that anyone agrees with me.) For example, the plural of "forum" is "forums" -- if it was still considered a Latin word it would be "fora."

Do you order two "Whoppers Junior" at Burger King?
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