• Zachariah@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Depends on the language. Current standardized American English overwhelmingly list adds -s/-es to make a plural noun. So “octopuses” would be technically correct with “octopodes” and “octopi” also accepted.

    If you’re writing Latin, you’d want octopi instead. If you’re writing Greek: octopodes.

    But English is a democratic language, so feel free to vote often and early by using your preferred version.

    • R. Bridger@lemmygrad.ml
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      10 days ago

      To be pedantic, octopi comes from the misconception that octopus is a second-declension noun in Latin when it’s actually a third-declension noun. If you were writing Latin, you’d still want octopodes