{"id":5552,"date":"2021-11-01T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=5552"},"modified":"2021-11-01T08:58:02","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T13:58:02","slug":"dice-plural-or-singular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/singular-vs-plural\/dice-plural-or-singular\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Dice<\/em> Plural or Singular?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which word do you use if you\u2019re playing a game with more than one small, numbered cube that you have to roll?<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019ll look at the word dice<\/em>, along with some related thoughts.<\/p>\n

The Plural of Dice<\/em>: Are We Using Correct English?<\/h2>\n

To begin with, asking \u201cWhat is the plural of dice?\u201d is a trick question. That\u2019s because dice<\/em> is plural already.<\/p>\n

If you have only one cube, it\u2019s called a die<\/em>: He picked up the single die<\/u> and rolled it.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you have two cubes, you have dice<\/em>: She picked up the two dice<\/u> and rolled them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s not common to cast a single die<\/em> in games that are popular in America, not all people might understand that dice<\/em> is already plural. For that reason they may look to add extra letters such as an \u201cs\u201d or an \u201cn\u201d to indicate that more than one die <\/em>are being used: dices<\/em>, dicen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Simply remember that a single cube is a die<\/em>, and two or more are dice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What Else Makes Die<\/em> vs. Dice<\/em> Confusing<\/h2>\n

As we\u2019ve mentioned, not many situations call for a single die<\/em>, so we may not always have opportunities to reinforce our understanding of the distinction in daily writing and speech. In addition, what may compound the confusion is that the word die<\/em> is also widely used in a much different context.<\/p>\n

As a verb, to die<\/em> means \u201cto pass away or stop living.\u201d We use that word in that context much more often than we do in discussing a game. It\u2019s possible that we subconsciously prefer to avoid the association: He will roll the die<\/u>, and then he will die<\/u><\/em>. We are also more familiar with the use of dice <\/em>in our colloquial speech to mean any amount of the numbered cubes.<\/p>\n

Another thing to consider is that we might get thrown off by the dissimilarity of dice<\/em> and a word such as the plural mice<\/em>. Although the same in plural form, they have different singular forms (die <\/em>versus mouse<\/em>). This is because of the way the language has evolved from other sources such as older English, Latin, French, and Greek.<\/p>\n

Want to Get Your Grammar Just Right?<\/h2>\n

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We hope you make the most of all of the information we include for you on our website. Browse our vast archive of articles to brush up on different topics. You can also follow the many different engaged and interesting threads begun by our readers to discuss a subject further. We add new grammar content each week as well, so be sure to visit us again soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which word do you use if you\u2019re playing a game with more than one small, numbered cube that you have to roll? Today we\u2019ll look at the word dice, along with some related thoughts. The Plural of Dice: Are We Using Correct English? To begin with, asking \u201cWhat is the plural of dice?\u201d is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-singular-vs-plural","category-spelling"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5552"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5556,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552\/revisions\/5556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}