What is the plural of the word 'virus'

What is the plural of the word virus? Please vote.

 

here you go

 

Thank you. Please vote. I'm sick and tired of people in this forum who should really know better say virii!

Please also see

http://spl.haxial.net/viruses.html

Please read the rest of the page too, very informative.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus#Use_of_the_word_.22virus.22

Hey "Bigc", I'm confused you voted for virii or viri Did you google up the correct answer after answering the poll??

 

I hate getting and cleaning virii

 

More discussion over at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_of_virus

 

As a foreigner, I always write viruses.
I always thought that viri was a slang word, like warez, but I don't know much about slanguages.
It's already hard enough for me to write and spell in English.

 

It is a long time since I was at school but I think we were always told that if the word ended with a 's' like virus the plural would be spelt virus'.

 

I think you are confusing this with something else.

Prediction of God = God's prediction
Prediction of Jesus = Jesus' prediction (because the name ends with a "s" and Jesus's prediction is wrong.

I could be wrong of course.

 

It's how you pronounce the word ErikAlbert, so it would be Jesus's (Ge-zhus-es) prediction, but not the dolls' (dallz) prediction

Alphalutra1

 

~snip~ man, you make it even more difficult for me.
Now I have to know how to pronounce the words in order to spell it right.
I'm better in writing, than speaking English. LOOOOOOOOL
Nevertheless, I was closer to the truth, than crash79. That's a comfort.
Thanks Alphalutra.

 

that only applies if something belongs to the virri and you can't tell if it's singular or plural because both are spelt the same. it doesn't apply here because virus and viruses have different spellings and nothing belongs to the virus.

i admit i was rubbish at English at skool but i went to a good skcool so my friend's brains rubbed off on me

i don't think objects can own things anyway.

 

Anything but viruses would be wrong.

 

This refers to the spelling of the possessive, not the plural.

Examples:

"Sasser and Sober are sometimes called viruses." (plural of virus)

"Speaking of Sasser, this virus' characteristics include ....." (possessive of virus)

---

 

At least I got half of it right.
Thanks for that.

 

Plurals of words whose endings sound like "us"

Any word whose singular ends with a *sound* like "us" or similar,
pluralises to "ii". However, for historical reasons, alternative
spellings more commonly used by English scholars (e.g. "viruses",
"buses") are allowed as well. For example:

Singular Correct Plural Alternative Plural
------------------------------------------------------
bus bii buses
cactus cactii -
canvas canvii canvases
fetus fetii fetuses
fuss fii fusses
mattress mattrii mattresses
octopus octopii octopuses
penis penii penises
radius radii -
rhinoceros rhinocerii rhinoceroses
status statii statuses
thesaurus thesaurii thesauri, thesauruses
virus virii viruses

Anyone know any others?

 

I'd opt for virus's as the possessive. Here's my main man for punctuation on the possessive for nouns ending in s:

source

 

The same man (this is from a book I have):

Some of the other examples in your list I'm not sure about, but bus, canvas, fuss and mattress definitely shouldn't be there. And rhinoceros is Greek, not Latin, so the plural is rhinoceroses.

 

Don't forget the hippopotamus. And all his family, the hippopotamuses. Or hippopotami, depending on where you live and what day of the week it is.

 

Well to be honest.I'm not sure about any of them.

Just thought I would post them for a bit of a stir.

If anyone uses "virii" or "viruses" it doesn't worry me,I know what they mean.

 

lol,

I have often wondered when i see the term "malwares" being used. Just doesn't look or sound right. Seems just using "malware" will cover most uses but i'm no english major so what do i know.


snowbound

 

Google search stats-

"Computer malware" = 51,800
"Malware" = 41,800,000

"Computer malwares" = 205
"Malwares" = 848,000

"Computer virii" = 9,720
"Virii" = 925,000

"Computer viruses" = 8,940,000
"Viruses" = 267,000,000

So it seems "viruses" and "malware" rule!

 

A bit off-topic, but I don't want to waste a thread on this.
I don't know how to spell the past time of the verb "read" and I use that verb alot.

Present time : I read a book
Past time : ?

 

Read. Yesterday I read a book. Pronounced 'red'.

Your example with the present tense is not something native English speakers would say. We'd use the present continuous: I'm reading a book, meaning an activity I'm doing right now, or over a broader stretch of time (I'm reading War and Peace). The simple present is used for habitual actions: I read The Economist every week. I read a lot of science fiction.

 

Back on topic: I think it would be more fun if we all made up our own plurals. Here's what I'm going to use:

one virus - two virosi
one trojan - two trojenes
one worm - two worm (like sheep)​

Any kind of -ware I'm going to treat as a countable noun: a software, a malware. Plurals are softsware, malsware, adsware, but - careful! - the plural of spyware is spiesware.

Finally, all technical terminology will be rendered in improvised French, and invariably italicised.


Example:

Today my regular AV scan reported two trojenes and five worm. I'm surprised by these results, as my log du firewall shows no suspicious activity. Are these genuine malsware, or just positifs falses?​

To which the correct response would be:

Have you tried uploading them to le scan du virus de Monsieur Jotti?​