Plurals puzzle - or plural puzzles?

[Ayesha]

Hello! Firstly, hi everyone old, hope you are all writing strongly and yes I am still alive, and second, hello everyone new that I haven't met yet.

Does anyone know, when you pluralise something that comes in two words, when you would pluralise the first word and when the second word? For example, if there are several military prosecutions going on, we would talk about 'courts martial' rather than 'court martials' (if I've even got the right martial/ marshall!). But if there are several small yapping dogs around your feet, we would talk about 'Jack Russells' rather than 'Jacks Russell' - right? or not?
So the question is, is there a rule? Thanks

[RevBonestripper]

That would be Jack Russells, or better: Jack Russell terriers. In the first instance Jack Russell functions as a two-word noun, in the second, Jack Russell functions as an adjective (therefore not taking the plural). In your first example, Court Martial is a noun/adjective compound, and only the noun part takes the plural, thus, Courts Martial. I generally just try to keep an eye for the word function in similar two-word nouns, because most of them have a noun part that would take the plural and the adjective part that does not. I still can't help you with the best way to pluralize platypus.

[Falamh]

Platypus becomes platypi, as octopus becomes octopi. It's an irregular one!

Normally, I think it'd be the second word that gets pluralized. Plurals puzzle would imply ONE puzzle regarding MULTIPLE plurals, which I allow is what you were getting at, but Plural Puzzles would suggest multiple puzzles regarding plurals, which would be more correct.

The first word in the grouping is more of a discriptor.

Oh! By the way! These comics offer some tips on grammar and spelling, and make me giggle, so I figure this is an appropriate venue in which to share them.

How to Use a Semicolon

Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling

How to Use an Apostrophe

[RevBonestripper]

Actually, platypuses is correct, and so is platypi. Same with octopuses and octopi. (My spellchecker disagrees on platypus, but accepts both options for octopus.) My rule of thumb is to pick the version that best fits the context; basically, try to figure out which version the folks around me think is right and use that. Holy wars get started over silly things like this. Such problems, puzzles, and confusion all boil down to the fact that English is the bastard child of multiple languages with different rules of grammar that was mostly illiterate for much of its invention. Thus we have weird rules that make sense if you're speaking Latin, but make no sense in German, French, Norse or Gaelic, which all contributed directly to the formation of English. It all adds up to a ridiculously complex and convoluted language that is difficult to master, but remarkably easy to use and understand even when one ignores, abuses or mangles the many inconsistent and often contradictory rules. For example, the second sentence of this post is grammatically incorrect, but you most likely didn't notice that when you first read it.
Ain't English great?

[Falamh]

Hee. English is absolutely maddening sometimes, is it not? I recall an episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien wherein a British actress was talking about "snuck" being a non-word and "sneaked" being more correct.

I allow that I commit such horrendous crimes against the English language on a regular basis that I have no business a'tal playing grammarian, though to tell you the truth, my grandest expectation of those who commonly write in English is that they be able to differentiate between Their/They're/There, Here/Hear, Wear/Where, Loose/Lose (though sticky o keys happen!), and Your/You're/Yore.

Tricksy homophones.

I am an online roleplayer, among my other terrible habits, and I am driven to distraction by the chat players who rampantly misuse these. However, when writing fiction, sometimes it is appropriate to visit outrages against grammar upon the reader in the interest of mood, even as an artist in paint or sculpture might take liberties in the name of expressing their vision.

I give that my personal style actually is an insult to all things properly English. I will often use staggered sentences and dangling fragments and oddly placed words to tell the reader "It is paced like THIS. I want you to KNOW that this idea, here, is distinct in a way that, mechanically speaking, it shouldn't be used. I currently fear returning to college and colligate writing a little, because I have been doing the majority of my writing for my own amusement for the past five years. This September, I start doing it for classes again, and I can't just flail about and say, "but I am an ARTISTE!!! With an EEE! To emphasise the bad and impractical!"

[Stanistani]

Some wit once said, "English is the product of a Norman soldier trying to pick up a Saxon barmaid."

If you add the dicatorial imposition of Latin Grammar rules, and the random accretion of loanwords from almost every language on the planet (and a few languages that exist only in fiction), you have our humble, maddening tongue.

*edit: found the author of the quote...
From Fuzzy Sapiens by H. Beam Piper (1964)

"English is the result of Norman soldiers attempting to pick up Anglo-Saxon barmaids, and is no more legitimate than any of the other results."

...on this interesting web page about science fiction and language:
Future Language