Why is the Fora tab listed as "Forums"?

[wanthony86]

Did you? lol

[wtncffts]

Did you? lol

Uh, why not? Forums is a perfectly acceptable plural form of 'forum'.

[wanthony86]

Uh, why not? Forums is a perfectly acceptable plural form of 'forum'.

Oh really? I didn't know both were acceptable. I guess "fora" is just trendier amongst grad students, then. lol

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

LATINA VIVIT! No point being a nudge about it though

[DrPepper-olic]

Since studying for the GRE turned me into Hermione Granger, I'd like to clarify. (Also, linguistics is my favorite pastime, but not my profession, so I welcome correction.)

Forum has two plural forms. Dictionary.com lists forums first, followed by fora. IMO, forums is better used in conversation and in a casual medium, such as Grad Cafe. The actual latin plural, fora, is best saved for academic discourse (i.e. papers, presentations, publications, and (possibly) class discussion). While these two pluralizations can be interchangeable, I think you'll find that using the formal in a casual setting may come across as pretentious, just as using the casual in a formal setting could come off as unscholarly.

Additionally, while it is nice to know the proper pluralization of Latin and Greek loan words used in various languages, you'll find that many do not recognize the Latin/Greek plural forms as more correct. For example, in Czech, academics use the Latin pluralization, while lay people use Czech pluralization. In Russian, no one will understand you if you try to use the Latin pluralization. I found that Spanish and French offer a similar case, and I am sure we can all agree that English is it's own special case.

So, OP, while it is commendable that you know the word origin of the word "forum", and therefore know it's original pluralization, it is not the only way to pluralize the word. I am sure that the creators of the site are familiar with the existence of both options for pluralizing "forum," and they chose the form that sounded best given the setting.