Plural of "Bonus"

[LittleKid]

There are many declensions ending in "us". Are the genitive singular forms mostly unchanged? I know of an exception, Busses.In particular, I couldn't find the different versions of the "bonus" section on the Duden website.
I even used AI to search, and some said boni was the most popular, while others said bonusse was the most popular.

[MoniqueMaRie]

There are many declensions ending in "us". Are the genitive singular forms mostly unchanged? I know of an exception, Busses.In particular, I couldn't find the different versions of the "bonus" section on the Duden website.
I even used AI to search, and some said boni was the most popular, while others said bonusse was the most popular.

https://deutsch.heute-lernen.de/grammat ... eklination

The official declension of "Bonus" in Germany is still the old Latin one "Boni". That's the same with most old Latin words of the Latin o-declension.

But:
Bus --> Busse (because the old Latin word "omnibus" was germanized).
As soon as we Germanize it the plural of -us becomes -usse.
Thus: Bonus-->Bonusse (but I don't really know people who say it this way; perhaps as a joke).

Status is also an old Latin word we use in German. But Status is u-declension (in Latin): Status --> Status

[John Little]

Bonuses and buses here in the uk.

Reminds me of a joke. A zoo keeper wanted to add to his animals and thought a mongoose would be good or even a pair so they could breed. But he wasn't sure what the plural was. He considered mongooses, mongeeses, mongi but none of them sounded correct. So he wrote "send me a mongoose, and while you're at it, send me two".

[MoniqueMaRie]

A zoo keeper wanted to add to his animals and thought a mongoose would be good or even a pair so they could breed. But he wasn't sure what the plural was. He considered mongooses, mongeeses, mongi but none of them sounded correct. So he wrote "send me a mongoose, and while you're at it, send me two".

But the correct plural must be mongeese, because English is always so logical as we all know: viewtopic.php?t=41315-why-is-english-so-strange

[John Little]

But the correct plural must be mongeese, because English is always so logical as we all know: viewtopic.php?t=41315-why-is-english-so-strange

The form of the English name (since 1698) was altered to its "-goose" ending by folk etymology. It was spelled "mungoose" in the 18th and 19th centuries. The plural form is "mongooses", although "mongeese" is also used.

https://en.wikipedia.org
Mongoose - Wikipedia

Although I don't understand the "folk entomology" thing because "mongooses" aren't native to the uk

[Tegze3]

But the correct plural must be mongeese, because English is always so logical as we all know: viewtopic.php?t=41315-why-is-english-so-strange

The form of the English name (since 1698) was altered to its "-goose" ending by folk etymology. It was spelled "mungoose" in the 18th and 19th centuries. The plural form is "mongooses", although "mongeese" is also used.

https://en.wikipedia.org
Mongoose - Wikipedia

Although I don't understand the "folk entomology" thing because "mongooses" aren't native to the uk

Folk etymology means that the speakers of the language attribute an incorrect etymology (origin) to a word, according to their feelings and intuition, often based upon perceived superficial similarities. And can't imagine why and how, but apparently there was a native Old English word for mongoose, nǣderbita...

[LittleKid]

Bonuses and buses here in the uk.

Reminds me of a joke. A zoo keeper wanted to add to his animals and thought a mongoose would be good or even a pair so they could breed. But he wasn't sure what the plural was. He considered mongooses, mongeeses, mongi but none of them sounded correct. So he wrote "send me a mongoose, and while you're at it, send me two".

Vielen Dank , although you're referring to the situation in English. English doesn't really have as many troubles about plurals as German.

[LittleKid]

There are many declensions ending in "us". Are the genitive singular forms mostly unchanged? I know of an exception, Busses.In particular, I couldn't find the different versions of the "bonus" section on the Duden website.
I even used AI to search, and some said boni was the most popular, while others said bonusse was the most popular.

https://deutsch.heute-lernen.de/grammat ... eklination

The official declension of "Bonus" in Germany is still the old Latin one "Boni". That's the same with most old Latin words of the Latin o-declension.

But:
Bus --> Busse (because the old Latin word "omnibus" was germanized).
As soon as we Germanize it the plural of -us becomes -usse.
Thus: Bonus-->Bonusse (but I don't really know people who say it this way; perhaps as a joke).

Status is also an old Latin word we use in German. But Status is u-declension (in Latin): Status --> Status

To be honest, I worry about using things like plurals incorrectly in writing or conversation, since English and German are inflectional languages. My native language, Chinese, is an analytic language and doesn't have word endings at all.

[MoniqueMaRie]

To be honest, I worry about using things like plurals incorrectly in writing or conversation, since English and German are inflectional languages. My native language, Chinese, is an analytic language and doesn't have word endings at all.

I know s.o. who even worked as a teacher in Germany and who told me that whenever she was unsure, she used the diminutive form in German.

Advantage: singular and plural are the same.
Example:
der Tisch, das Tischchen,
die Tische, die Tischchen

But you can't always do that, because otherwise it sounds like baby talk....
...and I don't know of a diminutive for "Bonus" (though Bonüschen sounds nice, like Nüsschen...)

[LittleKid]

To be honest, I worry about using things like plurals incorrectly in writing or conversation, since English and German are inflectional languages. My native language, Chinese, is an analytic language and doesn't have word endings at all.

I know s.o. who even worked as a teacher in Germany and who told me that whenever she was unsure, she used the diminutive form in German.

Advantage: singular and plural are the same.
Example:
der Tisch, das Tischchen,
die Tische, die Tischchen

But you can't always do that, because otherwise it sounds like baby talk....
...and I don't know of a diminutive for "Bonus" (though Bonüschen sounds nice, like Nüsschen...)

Thank you. What about the declension of Typ? It seems the singular genitive is 's', but all the others are 'en'.

[Chrisinom]

That's an old declension. Today only the plurals end in - en. The singular is Typ, with the exception of the genitive (des Typs). There's a general tendency of the German noun and verb endings getting lost, especially in spoken colloquial German. This also leads to avoiding the genitive and replacing it with a prepositional phrase: " von dem Typ" instead of "des Typs". (https://www.verbformen.de/deklination/s ... ve/Typ.htm)

[MoniqueMaRie]

Hi @LittleKid

I like what you find here:
https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Typ

Sometimes we still follow the English declension (Singular1) and sometimes it is already germanized (Singular 2).
The plural is always "Typen"