h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And, of course, the most obvious example to this rule:

Leaf - leaves

I would write "roofs"...but as the whole "irregardless" episode proved, I don't know nothing about speaking proper

Or writing proper, either, apparently!!!
'G'

Quote 1 - Martin Luther:
"Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter. "

Quote 2 - Jeffrey Gustavson:
"I've spent this morning watching television
And watching the snow fall past the window
And accumulate on the wet street
And on the roofs, hoods, and trunks of firemen's cars
Parked in front of the bicycle shop."

So - I'd say "roofs" has been in use and continue to be in use for at least the last 500 years.

I challenge the Martin Luther. He didn't speak English, so it's only a translation, which could be the contemporary spelling (and, as Shakespeare showed us, there weren't any rules in those days) or which could be a version from any period sind then. And there are still a helluva lot of roof tiles in Worms. I live near there - shall I write an entry?

And as for the Gustavson - poets are probably the worst spellers about.

What does the OED say? (Sorry, I don't possess one, can't check myself)

Websters online has the plural as "roofs".

OED online is a chargeable service so (a) I don't have access to it and (b) its use and influence will decline accordingly.

Websters is disqualified as being American.

My case stands

I did see somewhere (it may have been a hoax) that the IT industry wanted to use the term mouses to indicate many pointing devices.

I think it was seroius but who can tell?

CH

roofer noun [C]
A roofer is a person whose job is to put new roofs on buildings or to repair damaged roofs.

roofing noun [U]
Roofing is material used for making roofs.
Slates, tiles and shingles are the commonest roofing materials.

From the Cambridge (England) version of their online dictionary.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=roof*1%2B0

Ahem,
(slides spectacles on to bridge of nose, drops "Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary [1979 - Vol 2}" on foot, shouts "B*gger" and begins
"1600AD J. Pory wrote ' The walles of their houses are built of chalke, and the roofes are couered with strawe.'"
[Actual - not typos]
"1795AD Southey wrote 'The shatter'd roofs Allow'd the dews of night free passage.'"
[ditto]
It lists "Roove" as "a burr for a rivet" and "to secure with a rivet."
Hence, "rooves" indicates "burrs for rivets" or third person singular as "he / she secures with a rivet".
So, Trillian's Child, I don't know when you learned your English, but as it must have beeb at an earlier time, you seem to be wearing exceptionally well.

I have detected a tendency of some radio and TV reporters (sad to say - even on the Beeb) to allow their pronunciation of "roofs" to be somewhat slack so that it sounds like "rooves"; and I'm being kind when I say that.

Hi I was looking for a dictionary of English usage and I found this, it's called Britspeak, should be of use, but it does take some word's too litterally.

CBAgain

Hi I was looking for a dictionary of English usage and I found this, it's called Britspeak, should be of use, but it does take some word's too litterally. http://pages.prodigy.com/NY/NYC/britspk/main.html

CBAgain

As someone has mentioned poor pronunciation of BBC reports, anyone else noticed sometimes you cannot tell the difference between "Rarely" and "Really" - sometimes the entire meaning of of a sentence eg"H2G2 is a rarely/really good web site"

CH

opps really must read my entries before posting, that last sentence again.

sometimes the entire meaning of a sentence eg "H2G2 is a rarely/really good web site" can be totally altered depending on the word used.

As an outsider looking in (from within!), I must tell you that some of those BBC newsreaders, esp. on radio, sound *so* authoritative.

I believe anything they tell me, and I'd do anything they'd say!

BTW, people who want to spell 'roofs' as 'rooves' are just getting mixed up with animal feet.

Besides, surely the most fundamental rule of English spelling is that no rule must be left unbroken.

(There's a logical paradox in there if you'd like to get your head around it!)

I still insist that if there's one thing I remember learning at school, it was that. Wife/wives, dwarf/dwarves, half/halves, leaf/leaves. And no exceptions. And until recently, I had never seen the spelling "roofs", which, when I did, undermined my whole faith in life, the universe, etc.,....

However noblesse oblige, if you want to spell it like that, do. Can anyone help me perhaps from Pitman's? I can't find it in my dictionary, but I would use the thicker "v" curve, rather than the thin "f" curve for writing the plural of roof. Not that that reflects on the spelling, as Pitman is purely a reproduction of the sounds, but it may help.

Can we agree that it is only the word "roof" which is being challenged here, that the other examples I mention above are correct in everyone's book?

If so, I will drop the subject

& shelf/shelves!

Also proof => proofs, as proves is an entirely different meaning.

The overdependence on "rules" is a major problem with learning English (and French, for that matter) because the rules don't always apply....

I think it's about time I jumped into this with both hooves. Most modern British English dictionaries give both "dwarfs" and "dwarves". IMHO the plural of dwarf is dwarves and dwarfs is part of the verb "to dwarf" or to make appear smaller eg The Bank of China building still dwarfs its neighbours
[sideswipe to Dunx What the hell does prooves mean? It is another word that doesn't exist]

I only had one "o" which proves you weren't looking