Guild Wars 2

No. STAVES, not staffs. >:( fix your black lion trading spelling

I think there should be an universal rule on the internet that people who use all caps and smileys arent allowed to complain about spelling.

Staffs is an acceptable pluralization. The supposed grammar kittens in this forum are really tiresome.

hannah mee.7925:

Staffs is an acceptable pluralization. The supposed grammar kittens in this forum are really tiresome.

The only time Staffs is an acceptable plural is when referring to Staffordshire bull terriers.

ever thought about the part where language has nothing to do with how something is called in a game?
also, SPELLING NASI ALERT

hannah mee.7925:

Staffs is an acceptable pluralization. The supposed grammar kittens in this forum are really tiresome.

And remember like my signature says. Language and text have evolved! No more drawing on cave walls.

Hey, I’ve got a signature, too!

And staves is certainly a prettier form.

Thiefs

Dwarfs

In Old and Middle English voiceless fricatives /f/, /?/ mutated to voiced fricatives before a voiced ending.[references 5] In some words this voicing survives in the modern English plural. In the case of /f/ changing to /v/, the mutation is indicated in the orthography as well; also, a silent e is added in this case if the singular does not already end with -e:
bath baths /b??ðz/, /bæðz/
mouth[1] mouths /ma?ðz/
calf calves /k??vz/, /kævz/
leaf[2] leaves /li?vz/
knife[1] knives /na?vz/
life lives /la?vz/

In addition, there is one word where /s/ is voiced in the plural:[references 5]
house[1] houses /ha?z?z/

Many nouns ending in /f/ or /?/ (including all words where /f/ is represented orthographically by gh or ph) nevertheless retain the voiceless consonant:
moth moths (voiced /m?ðz/ is rare but does occur in New England and Canada)[citation needed]
proof proofs

Some can do either:
dwarf[3] dwarfs/dwarves
hoof hoofs/hooves
elf elfs/elves
roof roofs (commonly voiced as /ru?vz/ to rhyme with hooves, but rooves is a rare archaic spelling)
staff[4] staffs/staves
turf turfs/turves (latter rare)

Notes:

In a Canadian accent, the mutation to a voiced consonant produces a change in the sound of the preceding diphthong (/a?/ or /a?/).
The Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team is a special case; see Teams and their members below.
For dwarf, the common form of the plural was dwarfs —as, for example, in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs— until J. R. R. Tolkien popularized dwarves; he intended the changed spelling to differentiate the "dwarf" fantasy race in his novels from the cuter and simpler beings common in fairy tales, but his usage has since spread. Multiple astronomical dwarf stars and multiple nonmythological short human beings, however, remain dwarfs.
For staff (/stæf/ or /st??f/) in the sense of "a body of employees", the plural is always staff; otherwise, both staffs and staves (/ste?vz/) are acceptable, except in compounds, such as flagstaffs. Staves is rare in North America except in the sense of "magic rod", or the musical notation tool; stave of a barrel or cask is a back-formation from staves, which is its plural. (See the Plural to singular by back-formation section below.)

Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Or Wikipedia. I dunno, one of the two. I get them confused.

rapthorne.7345:

hannah mee.7925:

Staffs is an acceptable pluralization. The supposed grammar kittens in this forum are really tiresome.

The only time Staffs is an acceptable plural is when referring to Staffordshire bull terriers.

That is completely false.

NYG.2568:

And remember like my signature says. Language and text have evolved! No more drawing on cave walls.

Language and text are going backwards. People complain when corrected instead of bettering themselves by learning. And smileys? Isn’t that a step back towards your cave walls and ancient hieroglyphics?

NYG.2568:

And remember like my signature says. Language and text have evolved! No more drawing on cave walls.

*Devolved.

My dictionary means something entirely else with “staves”, so maybe “staffs” is correct after all?

Proudfeet!!
/fifteenhobbitfoots

Hamfast.8719:

NYG.2568:

And remember like my signature says. Language and text have evolved! No more drawing on cave walls.

Language and text are going backwards. People complain when corrected instead of bettering themselves by learning.

I wlil agere taht lnagugae adn txet r giogn bakwrads, btu olny bceuase our barin has a btteer udnersatndign of it, adn it dosent nede crorcet splelign to be albe to udnersatd teh wrtire’s thuohgts.

Laiznses, srue, btu huamns crae mcuh mor aobut effcieincy. If it’s sitll 100% udnersatndalbe, eavn atfer bieng msispleled or shrotneed, tehy see no ponit in “btteernig tehmsleves by laenrnig”.

sorudo.9054:

also, SPELLING NASI ALERT

I didn’t say anything about spelling I just love some good food…..

get it right lozers!  D:

Jana.6831:

My dictionary means something entirely else with “staves”, so maybe “staffs” is correct after all?

Both staffs and staves are acceptable plurals. Stave is also an acceptable singular form, although that’s not the first definition of stave.

English is a frighteningly large and confusing language.

Hamfast.8719:

NYG.2568:

And remember like my signature says. Language and text have evolved! No more drawing on cave walls.

Language and text are going backwards. People complain when corrected instead of bettering themselves by learning. And smileys? Isn’t that a step back towards your cave walls and ancient hieroglyphics?

Smileys, at least, are an example of language evolving to meet new needs, not a step backwards. In the “digital age”, written language is, for the very first time, being used as a direct substitute for spoken conversation. In real time, no less. A smiley is simply a way of conveying some of the non-verbal communication that ordinarily accompanies normal speech.

I always say staves too, dw OP. I got you.

I say staves too, but it’s a fact that staffs is also correct. I don’t prefer it, but that doesn’t make it wrong.

Olvendred.3027:

Smileys, at least, are an example of language evolving to meet new needs, not a step backwards.

I give you this 14, 000 year old cave painting at Scredda, in the south of England.

sorudo.9054:

ever thought about the part where language has nothing to do with how something is called in a game?
also, SPELLING NASI ALERT

Yet they use “foci” as the plural for focus.

Be consistent Anet!

hannah mee.7925:

Jana.6831:

My dictionary means something entirely else with “staves”, so maybe “staffs” is correct after all?

Both staffs and staves are acceptable plurals. Stave is also an acceptable singular form, although that’s not the first definition of stave.

English is a frighteningly large and confusing language.

I actually have a tendency to believe anet and my dictionary (dict.cc who are great, btw) – anyway the problem with English might also be that there are tons of countries out there who speak it, so “staves” might be an archaic but correct plural in some parts of the world wheras others never used “staves” to begin with. So English isn’t that confusing, the people who speak it are :P <— there, I did it.

English is extremely confusing to any and all that speak it. Most people who do speak it (and have learned it naturally) do not make any attempt to understand it, however, which is why we run into problems like this.

Other words that are evolving and being misused:
Decimate: To kill 1/10th of. (HE DECIMATED OUR FORCES = 9/10 of our forces remain.)
Slang usage: To destroy most/all. (HE DECIMATED OUR FORCES = we lost the fight badly.)

Swear words: Most, if not all swear words are not actually bad in meaning. Used in slang, they have negative connotations, however they don’t typically make sense if translated literally. There are some exceptions, particularly relating to homosexuals (don’t say the f word to homosexuals, the origin of that slang is horrible).

I would list them, but I don’t think kitten is a word that’s being misused to the point of evolving into slang (outside of ANet forums).

I always use “staves” too. (“Begone, you illiterate peasant scum!”)

But seriously, it doesn’t bother me (much) when people say “staffs”.