Legal Writing

The Plural of ?Calf? is ?Calves,? or is it?

By Maeve

An NPR reporter talking about Colorado ranchers mentioned the income they get when they sell the offspring of their cattle. What she said was:

when they sell their [k?fs].

She pronounced the plural of calf, which is spelled calves, as [k?fs].

I’ve heard speakers on radio and television pronounce the plural of knife as [n?fs], elf as [?lfs], and life as [l?fs], but never gave the matter much thought because they were not speaking in a formal context. Perhaps these pronunciations represent a trend.

English has a small group of nouns ending in f that form their plurals by changing the f to v and adding es. Calf belongs to this group. At least, it used to.

calf calves
elf elves
half halves
knife knives
leaf leaves
life lives
loaf loaves
self selves
sheaf sheaves
shelf shelves
thief thieves
wharf wharves
wife wives

Other nouns that end in f form their plurals simply by adding s. For example:

belief beliefs (the verb is believe)
chief chiefs
cliff cliffs
fife fifes
grief griefs (the verb is grieve)
gulf gulfs
hoof hoofs (some speakers say hooves and spell it hooves)
proof proofs (the verb is prove)
roof roofs (some speakers say rooves, but still spell it roofs)
safe safes (the verb is save)
strife strifes (the verb is strive)

Some fantasy fans may argue the merits of dwarfs versus dwarves, but as long ago as 1937, Walt Disney gave us Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

My old high school English handbook gives hoofs as the plural of hoof, but I remember this line from a poem students were required to memorize:

Tlot tlot, tlot tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hooves, ringing clear. –”The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes

Both sounds represented by the letters f and v are formed by placing lips and teeth in the same postion. The only difference between the sounds is that v is voiced and f is not. The feminine of fox is vixen. Before the 1500s, it was fyxan
.
The small group of words that follow the plural forming rule of change the f to v and add es seems to be in the process of dwindling further. Maybe English teachers have stopped teaching the rule.

Will speakers who say [k?fs] for the plural of calf still write the word as calves? Or will they write calfs?

The Plural of “Calf” is “Calves,” or is it?

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on December 31, 2008 (boomark / email).