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I don't want to be a wise guy, but shouldn't the plural of cory be cories instead of corys? Just like guppies, platies & ladies? Or is there some irregularity when abbreviated Latin words are concerned?

Since it's not considered a proper English word (I doubt you will find this in any English dictionary), I guess it's OK to pluralize it any which way.

This is the sort of thing Clare and I discuss late a night and quite often. We have gone with Corys because the root of the word is the Latin and you are shortening it for convenience.

You say Cory to be short for Corydoras. You would also say 10 Corydoras don't you? So, a shortening of that would be 10 Corys. Pony, Ponies, Sheep, Sheep, Guppy, Guppies, Deer, Deer - it's the English language that allows for rules to be broken, what falls into common use is what is right and what most often falls into common use is what is easiest - so the Planet house style is Corys.


Don't get me started on (cat)Fish, (cat)Fishes!

Does that make sense?

Jools

Fair enough. I'll do my best to adapt to this house style.
Anyway, it's better than making these names singular, something that can be noticed from time to time.
One Corydora, one Claria, one Platydora etcetera.

You know, it's such a good question I'm going to put it in the FAQ!

Jools

Jools,
Or does it depend if it is possessive like cities and city's.
"Cories are cute fish."
"Take a look at that cory's barbels."

"Corydora" is used by collectors in the Amazon. I have no idea why.

I agree with cory, corys, cory's, and corys' since we are abbreviating Corydoras.

Lee told me years ago that catfish = one family and catfishes = more than one family.

"There are many ictalurid catfish in the Mississippi."
"We caught catfishes from 9 families in the Amazon."
-Shane

The distinction based around use of the possessive adds a complication to a more simple arrangement, so, no dice. Wish some other parts of the language could be as so.

I think the use of Corydora may be a pronunciation thing, like, no e before the s and the s is at the end of the word, so, like, what's the point in pronouncing it?

That definition of catfish versus catfishes is precisely the one I use. Maybe I got it from you, I don't know. One for the taxonomists I feel but a surefire and defensible house style.

Jools

Marc van Arc wrote: One Corydora, one Claria, one Platydora etcetera.

Corydoras is a singular word, and also plural, you say "One Corydoras" (with final "s"), but also "One hundred Corydoras".

Is the same for Clarias and Platydoras...

In Spanish we have an additional problem: people tend to make the word Corydoras feminine, when is a masculine word... but sounds as feminine in Spanish. Then, they say "una corydora" or "la corydoras", when they should say "un Corydoras" or "el Corydoras".

Jorge wrote:Corydoras is a singular word, and also plural, you say "One Corydoras" (with final "s"), but also "One hundred Corydoras".

Don't worry Jorge, I know. I think you misread my statement.

As Cory is slang, (of a non-english word) there are few rules in regards to the plural, except one.

If you capitalize the word you would add an S, otherwise you would pluralize it by changing the Y to ies.

For instance, the name Sandy, if there is more than one Sandy you would spell if 'Sandys' not 'Sandies'. I think you get the point.

As a side note, I capitalize the word, this use 'Corys'

Chris