Guild Wars 2

This isn’t a rant thread I’m just curious, I notice the word “thiefs” get used an awful to obviously describe multiple, but isn’t it “thieves”? Am I missing something? Some sorta esoteric PC MMO gaming term? I mean I don’t say staffs, its staves, but I mean, yeah just wondering.

We call them thiefs because anet didn’t name them rouges.

because most of the playerbase are not english native speakers

or do not know how to use plural forms of nouns

like the plural of knife = knives
half = halves

thief = thieves

depends on how these people are saying it.
If they’re saying there’s a bunch of thiefs at Stargrove, then you are correct lol.

But a lot of the time it’s describing something. For example, a thiefs (missing the apostrophe) backstab burst is OP.
This would make it possessive. spelled correctly, Thief’s. lol

But yeah a lot of people just dont care and say thiefs for plural haha.

also, just to take note of english parameters/syntax/grammar,

more often than not, they dont know the difference between “than” to “then” and they use it interchangeably,

also simple past present and future form of the verb is misplaced everywhere,

like play = played
say = said (most of them use sayed)
pay = paid (again most of the use payed)

although i heard and read somewhere that english rules are not use in some countries like japan,

nevertheless, “internet english” so to speak is evolving, as long as they understood what you meant its okay,

Maybe it’s similar to the issue with dwarfs and dwarves?

Oldgrimm.8521:

because most of the playerbase are not english native speakers

or do not know how to use plural forms of nouns

like the plural of knife = knives
half = halve

thief = thieves

/thread

It annoys the hell out of me too, but this is the internet. Expect it.

Actually, ‘thiefs’ is the plural form of ‘theif’.

I don’t think I can express how amused I am that there’s a thread about proper grammar.

But the correct plural form is “Thieves,” not “Thiefs,” following the rules that govern over other -f words in English, like “calf,” “scarf,” and “wolf.” Courtesy of http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thief:

thief [theef]
noun, plural thieves.
a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny.

It’s certainly wrong to say Thiefs. However, what if people consider it a proper name? I am from the Thief family, we are the Thiefs.

Rusc.4603:

But the correct plural form is “Thieves,” not “Thiefs,” following the rules that govern over other -f words in English, like “calf,” “scarf,” and “wolf.”

Like many other things in English, this isn’t a rule, just a pattern within a subset of words. It’s not true of “chiefs,” “beliefs,” etc. (http://www.scrabblefinder.com/ends-with/f/). In fact, more words ending in F don’t use “-ves” than do. The subset is mainly “-[short vowel sound]-lf” endings and is a direct result of changes in speech patterns from old/middle English, which would have had an extra syllable sound at the end of the pluralized word, e.g. “shelfes” sounds like “shelf-uss” in the middle English and became “shelves” later on. However, even words that fit this pattern don’t always get the “ves” ending— e.g. “Gulf” and “golf.”

Woaden.9425:

It’s certainly wrong to say Thiefs. However, what if people consider it a proper name? I am from the Thief family, we are the Thiefs.

…………..LOL

Pick one:
1) They’re too lazy to type “thief’s”.
2) They’re too ignorant to type “thieves”
3) They’re too immature to care that “their”, “they’re”, and “there” all mean something different.

Black Frog.9274:

Rusc.4603:

But the correct plural form is “Thieves,” not “Thiefs,” following the rules that govern over other -f words in English, like “calf,” “scarf,” and “wolf.”

Like many other things in English, this isn’t a rule, just a pattern within a subset of words. It’s not true of “chiefs,” “beliefs,” etc. (http://www.scrabblefinder.com/ends-with/f/). In fact, more words ending in F don’t use “-ves” than do. The subset is mainly “-[short vowel sound]-lf” endings and is a direct result of changes in speech patterns from old/middle English, which would have had an extra syllable sound at the end of the pluralized word, e.g. “shelfes” sounds like “shelf-uss” in the middle English and became “shelves” later on. However, even words that fit this pattern don’t always get the “ves” ending— e.g. “Gulf” and “golf.”

I didn’t mean to imply that the rule was true for all -f words, just some of the others. Thank you for taking more time to explain it, though, since I didn’t articulate it very well.

Same reason some people say elfs instead of elves. They’re under-educated.

I find it hard deciding between context but, if I’m talking about an attribute of the class I’ll use Thief’s and if I’m talking about players I’ll use Thieves as my general rule of thumb.

Dual.8953:

I find it hard deciding between context but, if I’m talking about an attribute of the class I’ll use Thief’s and if I’m talking about players I’ll use Thieves as my general rule of thumb.

What your doing is using completely fine. “Thief’s” is a single thief showing possession, as in “The thief’s hood was black.”

“Thieves” is the plural form of thief, as in “The thieves stole our kitten.”

Mars.6319:

We call them thiefs because anet didn’t name them rouges.

Not sure if clever or hilarious mistake…