in an English-language novel, should I pluralize "tableau" as "tableaus" or "tableaux?" Both of them look wrong.

[miriamrobern@dice.camp]

in an English-language novel, should I pluralize "tableau" as "tableaus" or "tableaux?" Both of them look wrong.

#amWriting #English #grammar #EnglishGrammar #LoanWordsAreSuchFun

[joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw]

@miriamrobern I am completely clueless, so I’m stumped too

[ms_missy_mae@dice.camp]

@miriamrobern "Tableaux".

I checked in a dictionary made of dead trees.

[wlonk@mastodon.transneptune.net]

@miriamrobern -x if you’re being at all Historicalish, or if it’s in a math context or fine arts context. Otherwise -s is tolerable.

[mkj@social.mkj.earth]

@miriamrobern Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and Collins all give the plural form of tableau as tableaux.

Definition of TABLEAU

The meaning of TABLEAU is a graphic description or representation : picture. How to use tableau in a sentence.

(www.merriam-webster.com)

tableau

TABLEAU definition: 1. an arrangement of people who do not move or speak, especially on a stage, who represent a view…. Learn more.

(dictionary.cambridge.org)

Just a moment...

(www.collinsdictionary.com)

[dianaprobst@mastodon.art]

@miriamrobern I would use the s, but not call the x out as wrong.

[litteratty@bookstodon.com]

@miriamrobern as a reader in both English and French "tableaus" feels wrong and it would startle me if I came upon it. In French it's tableau/ tableaux, so I'd expect to see this one. I'm no English native speaker though, so I don't know which form has been assimilated in the current language.

[eruonna@lgbtqia.space]

@miriamrobern
I'm a native English speaker, and what I've seen most is "tableaux", though I would also hesitate to use it outside of academic contexts I've seen it in for fear of seeming pretentious ‍️

[technicolourpenguin@void.lgbt]

@miriamrobern
X looks right at first glance


But now I've looked at them too many times and neither of them looks like a word anymore.