| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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7. Pronunciation Challenges: Confusions and Controversy
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| § 69. dwarf |
The plural of this word is either dwarfs (dwôrfs) or dwarves (dwôrvz). The latter form is the older of the two, the change from f to v being the result of a phonological rule in Old English. Other words that follow this pattern are thief/thieves, leaf/leaves, and wife/wives. While many of the words that are in this category still have their traditional plurals, some have also adopted modern plurals ending in just s, as dwarf has. And some words of this type have lost the older plural almost completely, as has roof, whose only plural now is roofs, although you may still hear (r vz) or (r vz). | 1 |
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roof. | 2 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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