Which do you think is correct? I consider 'fora' to be the correct plural of 'forum' since it's the correct way to decline the noun in Latin, but I usually use 'forums' to avoid sounding really pedantic.

I go with "forums" as it's more casual but I'll place "fora" in a conversation at times.

I imagine it's something like octopuses vs. octopi. We're speaking English, so we should use English plurals, but it is a Latin word, so they're both correct.

I always go with fora. I'm a (n ex-?) Latin scholar, so I try to be as precise as possible with words taken directly from Latin. I also try to be careful to not perform Latinate pluralization on words that are not Latin (or to not pluralize improperly). Example, take a virus and a virus, and you get viruses, not viri (aka, men).

In that case I hope you don't say "octopi".

I'm not following you why I wouldn't say octupi, because I do.

Now now, everyone knows it is octopusses.

See my previous post!

In short, it's a Greek word.

"It is a Latin word" "It is a Greek word". It's not not a Latin word. Therefore I can pluralize it Latin-ly.

It's a Greek word, so if you're going for that, the plural should really be "octopodes".

Anyway, if we want to inflect Latin loanwords in English like they were originally, why stop with nouns? Latin had inflections on verbs too. So the original post's "to decline the noun" would be incorrect; as it needs the infinitive form of the verb: "to declinare the noun". And adjectives! A "bonus level" ought to be a "bona level", because "level" comes from the feminine noun "libella".

Actuallly, it would be oktopoda iirc, since pous is a neutral word, hence it has a plural in -a. -es is for feminine/masculine.


EDIT: assuming it makes sense to preserve the original genus of the word for 'foot'. It would not be that nonsensical to redefine the word's genus when talking about the animal.

Goplat, you make an excellent point, and I also appreciate your pedantry. Mapar, hmm, I see what you're saying there. Merth, you had originally said, "it [octopus] is a Latin word [...]", hence my confusion towards you.

MFW'ing aside, I use forum and fora interchangeably. Depends on the mood and "class level" (how much like Kerm) I want to speak with.

Wrong antecedent, the "it" I was referring too was "forum". Had you clicked both links in my original post, there'd've been no confusion .

I beg to differ on the origin of forum. Forum was a latin word I am almost certain but Im going to check the dictionary while I am typing to make sure I am not stupid

A forum (Latin derived, "marketplace"; pl. fora) was the public space in the middle of a Roman city.

ONCE AGAIN: Check the links I posted. Octopus is Greek, Forum is Latin. No one is saying forum isn't Latin.

Oh my bad, I misread you the other day and its been irking me since so I didn't read again before posting. Sorry.

Well, you should make your sentences not have confusing structure. I'd call them octopuses, in that case; thanks for teaching me something new.

Of course we couldn't follow every single rule when inflecting loanwords for use in the English language, but I still find fora more correct than forums. A good example of a word I wouldn't make an exception for is vertebras as opposed to the proper vertebrae.

Vertebras just sounds weird to me. Actually, I'm having trouble finding examples of Latin loanwords that I wouldn't choose to correctly decline as per the original Latin form; can anyone think of some examples?