712. Some foreign nouns form the plural according to the inflectional laws of their own language.
- alumna, alumnae
- axis, axes
- datum, data
- stratum, strata
- alumnus, alumni
- parenthesis, parentheses
- formula, formulae
- phenomenon, phenomena
- analysis, analyses
- crisis, crises
- basis, bases
713. Don’t, won’t, can’t, aren’t, hasn’t, haven’t, have the apostrophe between n and t, where a vowel has been omitted.
714. It’s is the colloquial form of it is. The apostrophe marks the omission of i.
715. Its, yours, hers, ours, theirs, his, whose (possessive pronouns), do NOT have an apostrophe.
716. Following is a list of words most frequently misspelled by college freshmen.
- accept
- accidentally
- accommodate
- acknowledgment
- across
- affects
- aggravate
- airplane
- all right
- already
- altogether
- amateur
- analyze
- apparatus
- appearance
- arctic
- argument
- athlete
- athletic
- balance
- beginning
- believing
- benefited
- biscuit
- Britain
- business
- busy
- calendar
- can’t
- center
- certain
- changeable
- chauffeur
- choose
- clothes
- coarse
- column
- committee
- compel
- concede
- conceivable
- Connecticut
- conscience
- conscientious
- controlled
- course
- deceitful
- deferred
- definite
- descend
- describe
- desperate
- development
- dining room
- disappear
- disappoint
- discipline
- dissatisfied
- dissipate
- divide
- don’t
- dying
- ecstasy
- embarrass
- enemy
- envelop
- equipped
- especially
- exaggerate
- exceed
- excellent
- except
- exhaust
- existence
- familiar
- fascinate
- February
- fifth
- finally
- financier
- forfeit
- formerly
- forty
- fourth
- friend
- fulfil
- generally
- good-by
- government
- governor
- grammar
- grievous
- harass
- having
- height
- hoping
- hurriedly
- hygienic
- imaginary
- immediately
- incidentally
- inclose
- independence
- indispensable
- infinite
- inquire
- instance
- intercede
- irresistible
- its
- it’s
- itself
- judgment
- knowledge
- laboratory
- laid
- led
- library
- lightning
- lose
- maintenance
- Massachusetts
- mathematics
- medicine
- mischievous
- Mississippi
- misspelled
- muscle
- mysterious
- necessary
- neither
- noticeable
- occasion
- occurred
- occurrence
- o’clock
- omission
- opinion
- opportunity
- original
- paid
- parallel
- parliament
- particularly
- partner
- perceive
- perform
- perhaps
- permissible
- pervade
- physical
- possession
- precede
- preferred
- preparation
- principal
- principle
- privilege
- proceed
- professor
- program
- promissory
- pronunciation
- prove
- quiet
- quite
- really
- receive
- recognize
- recommend
- reference
- repetition
- restaurant
- ridiculous
- seize
- sentence
- separate
- shining
- siege
- similar
- skilful
- speech
- stationary
- stationery
- stopped
- stopping
- strictly
- superintendent
- supersede
- sure
- surprise
- syllable
- theater
- their
- there
- therefore
- till
- together
- too
- tract
- tragedy
- tranquillity
- transferred
- trouble
- truly
- Tuesday
- until
- using
- usually
- village
- villain
- weather
- Wednesday
- weird
- welfare
- whether
- which
- wholly
- who’s
- whose
- women
- you’re