Nouns ending in "f"?

Question

Hi. I'm not an english native speaker.

I have seen many times that nouns that end in "f" such as "scarf", "wolf", "dwarf" in their singular form become "scarves", "wolves" and "dwarves" in plural form.

However, in the past months I read the entire series of "chronicles of Narnia" - in english of course - by C.S. Lewis. I saw a few weird things for me...

C.S. Lewis uses the word "dwarf" and the word "hoof" quite ... A LOT. Moreover, he writes the plural form "dwarfs" and "hoofs" instead of the "dwarves" and "hooves" I was used to see.

My question, then, is: Are both ways of plural form correct? Or what is the rule?

Thank you in advance.

P.S.: I would appreciate if you point and correct my grammar, vocabulary use or any other mistake that you find in my english writting...

Answer 1

Theis whole thing stems from a time when English was actually phonetically spelled, and the "e"s at the end of a word were still pronounced.
All Germanic languages shared the rule that voiceless consonants became voiced when between vowels in the middle of a word, which was the case for these plural forms of words ending in -f.
In modern usage this is no longer the case, so some people spell it the "easy" way, especially Americans.

Answer 2

It depends on who the book was published for. Americans use a form of English that they have adapted and many of their words are not acceptable by English standards. So I would say that the book you have was published for the American Market.
Your English usage is excellent except for some small details.
Moreover, he writes the plural form "dwarfs" and "hoofs" instead of the "dwarves" and "hooves" I was used to see. It should read seeing.
My question, then, is: Are both ways of plural form correct? Or what is the rule?
A better way of saying this would be. Are both plural forms correct? If not, what is the rule?
Just try and write it as you think it should be spoken. You are doing well....keep it up.

Answer 3

Your English grammer is much better than most people on Yahoo answers.

There are a few things that are changing in English. One of the changes is going from irregular to regular. Over the next twenty or thirty years or more we will be seeing both forms of the plural spelling, /-ves/ and /-fs/

Answer 4

to be honest i'm not sure! I think C.S Lewis.... knowing he was writing for a young audience, wrote as such in order to make the reading of the book more entertaining for younger readers... so as to inspire their creativity by using alternative pronounciation.... I mean to be fair "hoofs" sounds more fun than "hooves"...

And as for your English? Spot on! Well done!

Answer 5

In Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans, the ending "je" is merely one of various forms to indicate the diminutive form of a noun. For example, the word for "dog" is "hond", so a small dog is "hondje". There are other forms, also. For example, the diminutive of man (in English the same) is not manje, but mannetje ("little man"), and in old Dutch it was "manneke", as it still is in some dialects.

Answer 6

I think your english is wonderful. You have a good grasp of our very confusing grammar, and your punctuation is good too. Writers often spell things incorrectly by accident, or even on purpose sometimes. You probably are better with english than alot of american red-necks I've met, so don't sweat it. Good job! :)

Answer 7

for wolf it is correct to say wolves
but for dwarf it is dwarfs
some of the nouns will have different forms

Answer 8

your english is actually very good. i have seen them both ways, but i see them more as "dwarves" or "hooves"

Answer 9

Alf, Elf, and Calf

Answer 10

CS LEWIS IS RIGHT,,,,, AND YOU ARE RIGHT. CS LEWIS SPELLED THEM ACCORDING TO OLDE ENGLISH, WHILE MOST PEOPLE NOWADAYS, USE JUST PLAIN OLD ENGLISH.