Thursday 23 April 2009

Hippopotamuses or hippopotami?

How do you vaccinate a hippopotamus?
With a hippodermic needle.

Very funny!
But what happens if you have more than one hippopotamus?

In spelling today, I said that the plural of hippopotamus was hippopotami. Well, it seems I was wrong. The correct spelling is actually hippopotamuses. The Oxford English dictionary says so.

The English language can be very confusing and it gets especially confusing when you move a round the world, particularly between England and America: colour or color, favourite or favorite and there are many more.

For a history of English spelling look here.





2 comments:

  1. I agree english is a very complicated language not that other ones aren't. Sometimes I also get confused.

    Tushar 3w

    ReplyDelete
  2. Too true, I too was confused just like octopus/octopi..... The wonders of the English Language!

    ReplyDelete

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