Something I've been seeing unusually often lately: use of \"-im\" words as singular.<\/p>\n
The \"-im\" suffix, in words derived from Hebrew, is generally a masculine plural, as far as I can tell (I'm sure Shmuel or others will correct me if that's wrong). So words like \"cherubim,\" \"seraphim,\" \"Nephilim,\" \"dybbukim,\" \"Hasidim,\" \"kibbutzim,\" \"klezmorim,\" and \"goyim\" are plural.<\/p>\n
In English, other plural forms are often acceptable. For example, it's fine in English to say \"cherubs,\" \"seraphs,\" \"dybbuks,\" and even \"goys.\" (We usually talk about the Nephilim in plural; I don't think I've seen \"Nephil\" singular.)<\/p>\n
But in all those cases, it's not correct to use the \"-im\" forms as singular. * \"A Nephilim walks into a bar\" is grammatically wrong; likewise * \"Wow, that cherubim is totally hot.\"<\/p>\n
I imagine that part of the confusion comes from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind in the Door<\/cite>, in which there's a character who's referred to as a cherubim. But even there, L'Engle was aware that that's nonstandard:<\/p>\n Calvin made a sound which, if he had been less astonished, would have been a laugh. \"But cherubim is plural.\"<\/p>\n The fire-spouting beast returned, \"I am practically plural. The little boy thought I was a drive of dragons, didn't he? [...]\"<\/p>\n\n