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formulas or formulae?

English translation: formulas or formulae

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:formulas or formulae?
Selected answer:formulas or formulae
Entered by: David Russi

20:15 May 26, 2004
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Marketing / Market Research
English term or phrase: formulas or formulae?
I've read in Cambridge Dictionary (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=30641&dict=CA... that both ways are correct (Plural of "formula"). However, I'd like to know which is more common.

My sentence is: "Likewise, laundry aids have been replaced by powder detergents that have proved more powerful, especially because of features such as pre-wash spot, non-chlorine bleach and stain removers in their formulae/formulas."
Carolina
formulas
Explanation:
Both are correct, fornmulas is more common, at least in the US
Selected response from:

David Russi
United States
Local time: 21:09
Grading comment
Thank you very much, everybody. All answers helped :-)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
5 +14formulas
David Russi
5 +4It depends
humbird
5The tendency is...
John Bowden
3formulae
David Moore (X)


  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +14
formulas


Explanation:
Both are correct, fornmulas is more common, at least in the US

David Russi
United States
Local time: 21:09
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
Thank you very much, everybody. All answers helped :-)

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Patricia Fierro, M. Sc.
3 mins
agree  Empty Whiskey Glass
7 mins
agree  Peter Linton (X): Much as I revere Latin, I am all for abandoning their irregular plural endings and going native. So let us use: formulas, viruses, hippopotamuses, statuses, etc. But I am a bit wobbly about e.g. bacilluses - i.e. pehaps that can remain bacilli pro tem.
7 mins
agree  George Rabel: absolutely. The Latin form could be more appropriate in a scientific text
7 mins
agree  A_G_A: both, but I hear mostly "formulas"
13 mins
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
19 mins
agree  Iris70: both
33 mins
agree  Nancy Arrowsmith
42 mins
agree  Penelope Ausejo
1 hr
agree  Eva Karpouzi
3 hrs
agree  Alfa Trans (X)
8 hrs
agree  LJC (X)
10 hrs
agree  Mikhail Kropotov
12 hrs
agree  John Bowden: "Formulas" would fit the given context better
15 hrs
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15 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +4
It depends


Explanation:
Depends. Fomulae is derived from Latin (like cactuses vs. cacti). As Latin-derived words were histrically words of academicians, scholars and college professors etc. would prefer "formulae", whereas newsreporter (for example) would choose formulas.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2004-05-26 20:38:22 (GMT)
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Yes Lars I agree thoroughly, and Latin is dieing langauage. Nevertheless it is also die hard. Pedantic atomosphere it creates could be irresistable to some.

humbird
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: I agree that in certain registers (academic, e.g.) formulae would still be preferred, but not in the example given.
3 hrs
agree  Java Cafe
5 hrs
agree  Alfa Trans (X): dying, though!
7 hrs
agree  Edith Kelly
8 hrs
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13 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
formulae


Explanation:
This is quite clearly one we could argue about until tomorrow - you know, the tomorrow that never comes. I'm not reall sure myself, but the European "English Style Guide" states that in political contexts the plural "formulaS" should be used, and in scientific contexts "formulaE". I'm not altogether sure if this helps us any further, because the sentence posted doesn't really look terribly like a scientific text, does it....
http://europa.eu.int/comm/translation/writing/style_guides/e...

David Moore (X)
Local time: 05:09
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
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15 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
The tendency is...


Explanation:
to use the Latin plural in scientific/mathematical contexts, and a regular English "-s" plural in non-scientific contexts: so depending on how "specialist" the text is, either "formulae" or "formulas" are both possible. However, if you wanted a pural of "baby milk formula", I can't imagine ever using "formulae"!

Some other words, such as "stadium" for example, very rarely have the Latin plural - very few people talk about "football stadia", for example.



John Bowden
Local time: 04:09
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
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