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Difficulty: MediumNouns and Noun Phrases

Complete the sentence below by filling in the blank with the correct plural form of the noun in parentheses.

Answer:During their study of atmospheric conditions, the meteorologists recorded several rare (phenomenon) 【phenomena】 that affected weather patterns across the region.

Answer

phenomena
The correct form is 'phenomena'. The word 'phenomenon' is a loanword of Greek origin. In formal register, Greek loanwords ending in '-on' form their plural by substituting the '-on' suffix with '-a'. The plural form is necessary here to agree with the quantifying modifier 'several'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the base noun and sentence context requirement.
The singular noun given is 'phenomenon', and the quantifier 'several' indicates that a plural noun is required.
Plural quantifiers must agree grammatically with plural countable nouns.
2
Apply foreign pluralization rules for Greek loanwords ending in '-on'.
Nouns derived from Greek that end in '-on' replace '-on' with '-a' to form the plural.
Formal English grammar preserves the classical plural inflection '-a' for scientific terms ending in '-on'.

Key Concept

Foreign Pluralization of Nouns
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Topics

Nouns and Noun Phrases

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