Comment by SpaceL10n
4 days ago
Singular and plural chassis are spelled the same, but that doesn't make it right! I'm more inclined to spell it chassises personally.
4 days ago
Singular and plural chassis are spelled the same, but that doesn't make it right! I'm more inclined to spell it chassises personally.
Chasses :-)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-sis
It's inherently plural, can't have just one. sort of like pants I guess. It is a container of parts.
> It's inherently plural
> It is a container
Did you mean "It is containers"? Or is it actually possible to have a singular container of parts?
Based on the etymology, I suspect the singular of chassis is case. Nobody uses it like that. But you would perhaps use chassis when it is full of parts or as an item that could be full of parts and case when empty or the parts don't matter.
Surprisingly enough, despite nobody using it like this, it works well, except for cars, where the singular form would be frame(car case just does not work), which does not share the same root and as such is a bit disappointing.
And what is also disapointing, despite the word already being plural(a french spelling of latin pluralization rules for case, use the latin soft c for case and add an i to pluralize, under french rules "is", the s is silent), When there are several chassis, we use the english pluralization rules and add an s. And because there is already an s we just add an s sound.
Spelled the same, but pronounced differently: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chassis
Replace language with an actually sensible one, and press any key to continue!
If nothing else, that is a truly sadistic trivia question. I wonder if there are any other words in the English language whose plural form is spelled the same, but pronounced differently.
If you want to take the weirdness a step further, just look at the plural for "woman". When you write "women" you only change the second vowel, but when you pronounce that same word you only change the first.
I think all the others that do this are loanwords from French? We keep the silent s at the end in the singular, and make it audible in the plural - faux pas, corps, précis, etc.
There are a bunch of other heteronyms, but I can't think of others that differ specifically in the plural
1 reply →
Corps. And you do have past and present of reading spelled the same and pronounced differently.
It is a french word and it is inherently plural, sort of like pants, by my best guess, having only looked it up just now, singuler chassis would be a case.
So chassis, the thing full of parts, case, same thing but without the parts?
Buggerall.
Chassis'
Chassipodes
Chassae.