# Singular vs. plural form of the word "forum"
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882
**Category:** Community Building
**Created:** [20 november 2019 om 05:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882 "2019-11-20T05:51:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@smileypants707](https://meta.discourse.org/u/smileypants707)
#### Post date: [20 november 2019 om 05:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882/1 "2019-11-20T05:51:17Z")
I’ve noticed that some Discourse instances refer to their community as a _forum_, and some refer to their community as _forums_. For example:
### Welcome to the _forum_
vs.
### Welcome to the _forums_
Is this just an anomaly of the English language? — are they both correct? Or is it one of those _“everybody does it and there is no reasonable hope of correcting this”_ kind of things?
I personally would use the singular form when referring to a specific community, Like:
### the Discourse meta _forum_
Thoughts?
---
### Author:  [@michaeld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/michaeld)
#### Post date: [20 november 2019 om 06:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882/2 "2019-11-20T06:07:27Z")
In vBulletin, the top-level category equivalent is called a forum. Thus, the community site exists of multiple forums.
The plural form is used relatively more often by people that have more vBulletin affinity, I think.
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### Author:  [@JimPas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JimPas)
#### Post date: [20 november 2019 om 06:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882/3 "2019-11-20T06:08:02Z")
> [@smileypants707](#):
>
> I personally would use the singular form when referring to a specific community, Like:
>
> ### the Discourse meta _forum_
That would be the proper form to use - the singular. Some instances are running multi-site forums - sometimes in different languages. Thus, they would use the plural “forums”.
So, forum = 1, forums = 2 or more.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [20 november 2019 om 07:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882/4 "2019-11-20T07:34:32Z")
Good question.
It’s one of those things that has become fluid over time. I think the plural of forum is actually fora but it’s so infrequently used that it’s instinct. And weird.
I say forums because I cut my teeth on vB and there were literally lots of (sub)forums but if it worked like that now we should call this the Meta categories.
We should prob just say community.
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### Author:  [@ariznaf](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ariznaf)
#### Post date: [20 november 2019 om 08:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882/5 "2019-11-20T08:20:49Z")
It depends on weather you think about the forum as a unique common place or as set of individual places for discussion about different themes (subforums).
In latin plural is fora, but you are not speaking latin, you are speaking english, and both terms, fora and forums are accepted for the plural.
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### Author:  [@Remah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Remah)
#### Post date: [20 november 2019 om 08:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/singular-vs-plural-form-of-the-word-forum/133882/6 "2019-11-20T08:53:16Z")
The use of _forum_ or _forums_ can be argued both ways because it depends how people see the places and spaces they interact in.
As said already, fora is normally only used for ancient Roman/Latin meeting places.
Today, we see the primary meaning of _forum_ as placeless and rather abstract because a _forum_ is commonly a meeting without reference to the meetingplace:
- _The international forum on climate change_
- _The conference provided a useful forum for the exchange of views and ideas_.
All this change doesn’t mean that we should confuse a _community_ of people with a _forum_ as a meeting or meetingplace where our community of people meet to exchange ideas and opinions.