Plural Of Hoof And Roof

The plural of roof the plural of roof is roofs.

Plural of hoof and roof. The plural of hof is hofas which when pronounced would have sounded like hooves. So the best we can say is that the plural form of roof is variable where roofs is the preferred plural in many style manuals although i can see. On the other hand spoof simply adds the plural s suffix to become spoofs. Roofs constructed of flat sloped sections are referred to as pitched roofs.

Just like roof hoof also started with two plural forms hoofs and hooves. Should it become rooves like hooves. It wasn t until the last 40 50 years that hooves began to pick up steam. For example roof chef and others these do not apply the previous rule but simply add the s normally at the end of the word after f in order to obtain the plural form.

And this is how you get hoofs. Hoofs is a much older rendering of the plural form of hoof. Hoof for instance becomes hooves in the plural. This is exactly how hooves is obtained as the first plural of the noun.

But hooves woke up in the 20th century and by about 1970 it overtook hoofs in usage and that s where it has stayed. But at the same time there are several exceptions form this rule. And the plural forms roofs and hooves don t necessarily follow the singulars. The primary job of most roofs is to keep out water.

When to use hooves hooves is the newer and now more common plural form of the hoof. When at school i was taught that the plural of roof is rooves and the plural of hoof is hooves. In any given region the pronunciation of roof doesn t necessarily follow with the pronunciation of hoof. Hoof comes from the old english word hof.

For a good 250 years hoofs was the primary plural form of hoof analogized with the word roof which has roofs as a plural form. Thus the plural of goof is goofs not gooves. Not all nouns follow simple rules when transitioning from single to plural form. Hoofs is also a plural form of hoof the horny part of an animal s foot.

And just like roof hoofs was the dominant one. Poof and poofs follow the same rule. My dialect is primarily midlands. English pluralization can be complicated.