The word "Crisis"

[Xeon]

Hi all,

Just curious. Does the word "Crisis" have a plural form, as in "Crisises"?
I keep feeling it's very weird to write :

Crisis helps to tell who your real buddies are.

The more correct version should be :
Crisises helps to tell who your real buddies are.

But when I write "Crisises", Microsoft Word highlights the word and says the spelling is wrong. So, does "Crisis" have a plural form?

Thanks all!
Xeon.

 

[Susan Boulton]

It's crises

Actually I would write "Crises help tell who your real buddies are." But that's just me..

Oh, suggest you bookmark this site...

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Or get an old fashioned book dictonary, relying on microsoft's spell check is not always the best way to go. It's a good tool, but only that.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Actually I would write "Crises help tell who your real buddies are." But that's just me..

Well ... you, and all those other wild, incorrigibly grammatical fools who insist that their subjects and verbs agree.

 

[Xeon]

Thanks a lot, SJAB and Teresa! Now, the spelling looks more correct.
One more thing, though : is there a spelling difference between "blond" and "blonde"?

Is it that the first one is a US version, and the second is a UK version?

Thanks again and great day,
Xeon.

 

[Mouse]

I always thought 'Blond' was male and 'Blonde' female.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

You're quite right, Mouse -- except that, in the US at least, "blond" is increasingly used for both sexes these days. Some people (myself included) like to keep the distinction in their writing, but it can depend on the publishing house or magazine whether their copy-editors will change "blonde" to "blond" for the sake of maintaining a house style. Words like "actress" and "waitress" which are not even borrowed foreign words are going out of style, and even words like blond/blonde that come from other languages are getting the same treatment.

So you can use "blond" for everyone, or just for the males while you use "blonde" for the females, depending on how up-to-date you want to be, and you'd be technically correct either way -- but if you put the "e" in when the head of hair you are talking about belongs to a man, that would be a mistake.

 

[Xeon]

LOL thanks, Teresa and Mouse. Good. I learnt something totally new today. Never knew that there's such a little story between "blond" and "blonde".
I'm totally impressed, and I know my mistakes now.

Thanks all!
Xeon.

 

[flynx]

Not forgetting that a person can be 'blonde' whilst having dark or even red hair. It's become descriptive of not having common sense. So even blondes can have 'blonde moments'.