Short story

[woodhutt]

My Mum and Dad were both dwarves.

All their lives they struggled to put food on the table...

Pete

[rrich]

Groan

[Old Croc]

At first I thought groan, but then it hit me, that's quite funny. Not very PC though.
Rgds,
Crocy.

[Optimark]

Actually it should be, "dwarfs".

My uncle, the family named him rocker, as he always had to rock himself to get momentum to get off of a chair, bed or couch, etc. He was a dwarf and he always said dwarfs when describing his dwarf friends. Back in the late fifties, to early sixties, he was one of the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs stage show. Which we as a family went to see when it was on in our town.

Mick.

[woodhutt]

I stand corrected
I should have known better as one of my pet hates is the way people refer to 'rooves' as the plural of roof (roofs). After all, whereas things might have 'grooves', we don't find Madonna encouraging us to 'Get into the groof'. The English language eh?
Actually, this could make an interesting thread on peoples pet linguistic hates.
Pete

[Boringgeoff]

I refer to roofs as rooves. When I came here from NZ 50+ years ago, I noticed the local pronunciation of animals hooves as hoofs.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[woodhutt]

I won't hold it against you, Geoff

Pete

[AlexS]

The plural of staff is staves. It gets me when people refer to a stave.

[rrich]

The plural of staff is staves. It gets me when people refer to a stave.

Aren't the things that are used to make a barrel called stave or staves?

[woodhutt]

The plural of staff is staves. It gets me when people refer to a stave.

A bit like dice and die. Two or more dice, a single die.
Pete

[Handyjack]

I have a computer mouse.
Do the shops sell mouses or mice?

[woodhutt]

I have a computer mouse.
Do the shops sell mouses or mice?

Plural of mouse is mice, so why not? It's no worse than using a non-word such as mouses?

Speaking of non-words. Back in the day I found myself working alongside a young, newly graduated engineer. He was instructed to go to site and check a series of columns for vertical using the (then) relatively new laser equipment. He duly did so and in his report he wrote that he had checked the columns for 'perpendicularosity'.
Wonderful!
Pete

[AlexS]

Aren't the things that are used to make a barrel called stave or staves?

One is a staff, more than one are staves.

[AlexS]

A Scotsman once told me that it's one haggis, two haggi and three haggamusses.

I'm sure he wouldn't have lied to me.

[rustynail]

According to the English dictionaries both are acceptable. According to the linguistic professor at Qld University both are now considered acceptable with the addition of the common pronounciation in Austalia being rooves and spelt roofs. Germanic origin were the f becomes ve to make the plural.