• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Plural of focus (1 Viewer)

_muse_

Come on join the joyride
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
2,019
Location
hunter valley
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
i thought it was focuses... but thinking about it it seems a little informal to me now
 

Abbeygale

Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2004
Messages
329
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
Foci will make you look really pretentious, but that's just my opinion. Markers might like pretentiousness.

I would go with focuses. The 'uses' plural is correct in English. The latin plural is more complicated than simply 'us' becomes 'i', so if you go with focuses you're guaranteed to have the correct plural, but if you try for foci there's a chance you'll be wrong. Plus, it's possible that the marker will be confused about what you mean, which would impact impression marking and disrupt the flow of your essay.
 

kami

An iron homily
Joined
Nov 28, 2004
Messages
4,265
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Focuses denotes that it is focusing - verb
Foci denotes more than one focus - plural
Essentially though you could probably use either or avoid the issue entirely if you structured the sentence properly.
 

gorgo31

Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Messages
218
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Haha it's like syllabuses and syllabi! No one uses syllabi cause it looks too wanky.

Or it may not be like that at all.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top