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3 answers

Hi Grammar Girl,

I'm sure you know that one can pluralise only Common and Collective Nouns and not Proper, Abstract or Material Nouns.

The general rule to pluralise nouns that end with a 'y' is as follows:

If the word has a vowel before the ending 'y', then we place an 's' to pluralise it. Eg. Bay - Bays, Jounrey - Journeys.

f the word has a consonant before the ending 'y', then we need to remove the 'y' and replace it with 'ies'. Eg. Lady - Ladies, Baby - Babies.

As far as your query is concerned, both January and Billy are Proper Nouns - one the name of the first month and the other a nickname for 'William'. As such, you technically cannot pluralise the words. Having said that, you can go ahead and use the formation 'Januaries' in a colloquial manner. Billies can be used as part of the word 'hillbillies" to refer to 'a person from the backwoods or a remote mountain area' - [hill + Billy, a nickname for William.]

2006-06-11 19:36:11 · answer #1 · answered by Rakesh A 4 · 0 1

The English English plural of January is Januaries.

2006-06-06 09:18:36 · answer #2 · answered by Xiondewah 1 · 0 0

Januaries
Billies (but you rarely say it cos it's a name)

2006-06-06 10:34:53 · answer #3 · answered by ms.moody 2 · 0 0

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