"What's the plural of elf?"
The plural of elf is elves.
Definition of elf:
Small imaginary, magical beings with pointed ears, often portrayed as mischievous or malicious.
'Elfs' or 'Elves'? What is the Plural of Elf?
Most English nouns ending in the letter -f do not adhere to standard English for forming plurals. They have an irregular plural form and replace the f with -ves.
The word elf follows this same pattern, and so the plural of elf is elves.
Sometimes the pluralization of nouns in the English language can feel confusing. English often breaks the rules and many plurals are irregular and simply have to be memorized.
Plural of Elf Example Sentences
Singular Example: The comedy movie Elf became an instant Christmas classic in 2003, starring Will Ferrell as an oversized real-life elf trapped in New York City.
Plural Example: The names of Santa's reindeer and known to many, but how about Santa's elves? According to ElfCrazy.com, two of Santa's original elves went by the names of Alabaster Snowball and Bushy Evergreen.
Elves vs. elfs
The graph shows the occurances of the plural of elf in written English since 1800 using Google's Ngram Viewer.
Fun Fact:
One of the most famous elves in popular culture is 'Link', who is often (incorrectly) known as 'Zelda' from the Legend of Zelda video games.
Sources:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/elf
https://www.quirkbooks.com/pop-culture-and-literary-elves-ranked/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/
https://elfcrazy.com/traditional-names-of-the-first-christmas-elves/
