AboutRosemary Lenc Expertise I am a retired Middle School teacher. I am an expert in grammar (structure of the English
language) and writing. I have been a volunteer with AOL Ask A Teacher and have
submitted many articles and special collections (one on diagramming sentences and one
with worksheets and answers so students can check their own practice on grammar skills)
to their knowledge database. I still am with them but would like other work where I can
help students with their English study. I have time to help you with this, if you want me. I
can help with grade school, middle school and high school grammar & writing and can
also look up information on literature (reading) for students and help them with it.
Please let me know if I can be of help in these areas. Thank you.
Rosemary Lenc
Experience
Past/Present clients Have helped many, many students in grade school language arts, middle school and high
school grammar and writing in both the chat rooms (live help that AOL use to have) and
message board answers plus the many students i have taught as a teacher.
Question QUESTION: So there is contention where I work as to what are the correct plural forms of the signs of the zodiac, i.e. Sagittarii, Sagittariuses. There is also contention about using Sagittarians or Geminians, etc. It is very difficult to locate a creditable website on this.
Thanks for your help.
ANSWER: Dear Monica,
The name of the zodiac sign cannot be made plural but the naming of the people under that sign can be, if you need the plural. The spelling of that naming of the people under the signs are given below. You can verify them at the second site below.
The above website tells you there is no plural for Taurus and an example for naming a person or persons born under Taurus is:
Laura’s a Taurean. Joan and Mary are also Taurean. They are Taureans.
The above website gives you the information you need. It seems that you cannot pluralize the signs but you can name the people under the sign as Arians, Saggitarians, etc. Read about the signs on this site and they will give you the plural for naming those under the signs. Remember though that you only use the plural when you are naming more than one.
The plural for the name of many under each sign:
Arians
Taureans
Geminians
Cancerians
Leonians
Virgoans
Librans
Scorpios
Sagittarians
Capricornians
Aquarians
Pisceans
Hope this is helpful to you. Thanks for using AllExperts.
Mrs. Lenc
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I appreciate your answer and your time very much. Unfortunately neither site gave me a solid answer. One was just a blog with a bunch of people guessing and the other was an astrology site. We are copy editors at a magazine, we use the Chicago Manual as a primary guide, and really need a creditable source to cite for our choices.
We also have a problem with making a singular noun, such as Geminian plural by adding an "s."
I have searched the web for a standard format and was hoping this site could offer some suggestions. Any other ideas?
Answer Dear Monica,
I really don't know of any other way to get the plural for the naming of the people under the astrological signs. I felt that the second site I gave you was a good reference.
The only other site I will give you is the Purdue University site where you can email a professor there for another answer to your question.
