#Tsarren wrote: #> On Tue, Oct 26, 2004 at 07:20:05PM -0600, Howard Brazee wrote: #>> #>> How about the virus? [...] #Depends upon who's doing the classification. But let's move to a less #controversial form, the bacteria. As long as we're talking about "the virus" and "the polar bear", let's be consistent and say "the bacterium". "Bacteria" is plural. :-) -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.] Never argue with a pedant over nomenclature. It wastes your time and annoys the pedant. -- Lois McMaster Bujold, _Memory_ "Attack neutral galactic shipping?" yelped Auson. "Do you want to get us all hung?" "Hanged," corrected Thorne, earning an ungrateful glare. -- Lois McMaster Bujold, _The Warrior's Apprentice_