>>7138365Okay, time for a crash course in Latin. In the Latin language, nouns are split up into groups called declensions. Each declension has set endings for the nouns to denote what case the noun is, such as nominative case (the noun is the subject) or possessive case (the noun owns the subject noun, what we in English denote with ‘s). The most common and important declensions are I, II, and III along with the neuter of II. The first two declensions are gendered feminine and masculine respectively while the third is genderless. The Latin words we use in English tend to only be in the nominative case since we use punctuation to denote case rather than change the word itself most of the time, so that’s all I will focus on here.
Words in declension I end with -a and are pluralized as -ae. Declension II end in -us and are pluralized -i. Declension III can have many different ending but are usually -x or -is and are pluralized as -es. Finally neuter words end in -um and are pluralized as -a. So formula becomes formulae, octopus becomes octopi*, nemesis becomes nemeses, and forum becomes fora.
This is all beside the point in this case however. Zelda is a proper noun; in English it is improper to pluralize a proper noun (though it is done frequently, especially with family names), thus “figures of Zelda” would be more correct. However, if you’re going to pluralize it, “Zeldas” would be the best option, or “Zeldae” if you want to look stuck up, but never Zeldii. This is something I’ve noticed in the Transformers fandom a lot too when people try to pluralize Optimus. The -ii ending is only used when the singular word ends with -ius; really it’s a noun that ends with -us but happens to have an i before it and so the plural ends with -i which just so happens to have an i before of it. So a Roman sword is a gladius and ends with -us; many Roman swords are gladii and end with -i.
