 Re: Plural Forms
A) long-tailed tigers : here long-tailed is a compound adjective. Adjectives in English are never plural.
B) football books : this is a compound noun - ie a noun made up of two nouns.
C) baby tigers : (NB spelling) Another compound noun. The first element in a compound noun acts as an adjective, and therefore - as in (A) above - is not made plural.
However tiger babies (same explanation) is also possible. It might be used in a context where the animals were being anthromorphiised -ie given human traits - such as in a children's story. So the next day, all the little animals in the forest started nursery school. The tiger babies were really surprised when ... It would be less likely than baby tigers though, and even this would be restricted to very informal situations, such as talking to children. If you were speaking or writing more formally, especially in a more scientific context, you would use the expression tiger cubs. |