I was telling a friend about this thread a bit ago. When he responded, he seemed to be using the word "gladiolas"; I asked him to repeat it, and he distinctly said "gladiolas" again. When I asked him about it, he responded "isn't that the plural of gladiolus?". He then went on to talk about the ways he had learned to form the plurals of words.I don't remember ever having been taught rules for forming the plurals of words. If anyone else remembers any of those, it might be interesting to see how such rules might have played a role in producing the word "gladiola". It would be neat to discover an old teaching manual which uses "gladiolus, pl. gladiola" as an example. This word "gladiola" might be a European import, or an Americanization of a European word. In German, for instance, one word used is die Gladiole (plural die Gladiolen) - note that the singular ends in a vowel, a vowel which to American ears might sound like one of the many variations on "a". Apparently gladiola is the nominative singular used in Czech, and there is a European hotel chain named Gladiola. So the word is probably here to stay. Jim McKenneyMontgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where it's raining again - good thing I covered the aril irises early this year. _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/