Are you wondering what the plural of ‘crisis’ is? If so, keep on reading. This article will reveal the meaning of the word ‘crisis,’ what its plural form is, and why there’s confusion over it.
But to give you the short answer, the plural of ‘crisis’ is ‘crises’ and not ‘crisises.’
Don’t worry if you thought it was ‘crisises.’ There’s a good reason why you might have considered that possibility. Read on to find out what.
Let’s start by explaining the meaning of the word ‘crisis.’ It’s a noun used to describe a situation that’s reached an awful state. Crises are generally challenging situations to deal with.
The country is in an economic crisis.
You have to come home. There’s a crisis next door!
Don’t worry; the crisis has been averted!
Or you could use it to talk about a period of doubt or turmoil.
I’m going through a mid-life crisis.
He’s having a little identity crisis.
The country is having a crisis of confidence.
When discussing one crisis, you use the singular noun ‘crisis.’ But what if you want to talk about several crises? You would need to use the plural noun ‘crises.’
The plural of ‘crisis’ is ‘crises.’
It’s never correct to say ‘crisis.’
So when exactly would you need to talk about several crises? That’s what our next section will cover.
Let’s look at some real-life example sentences of the plural noun ‘crises.’
Midlife crises are no joke; they really mess with your head.
This country’s already had enough crises for one year.
What can we learn from the last few crises?
There’s some confusion around the plural of ‘crisis’ because the word ends with -s, so it’s often assumed that you should just add -es to get the plural form.
After all, that is the rule for pluralizing nouns ending in -s.
However, ‘crisis’ is an exception.
If you’ve read our article on plural nouns, you’ll recall that in the section about exceptions, we covered nouns that end with -is. And we said that sometimes they fall under the general pluralization rules, and other times you must switch the -is to -es.
‘Crisis’ is one such case where you switch the -is to -es when making it plural.
‘Crisis’ and ‘crises’ are two very similar words. Only one letter separates them. So how do you pronounce them? Do they sound the same?
The answer is no; they don’t sound the same. But they sure sound similar!
In the singular noun ‘crisis,’ the second “i” has a short sound, like in “igloo.”
In the plural noun ‘crises,’ the second “i” has the long sound ee, like in “eagle.”
That’s the only difference!
Hopefully, you found this article straightforward enough. There’s only one possible solution for the plural of ‘crisis,’ and that’s ‘crises.’ If you ever see a different word in use, know that it is incorrect.
And to read about more confusing plural words, check out our Confusing Words blog.
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