"bacteria"

Translation: the bacterium

[Ser229339]

The pronunciation (the accent) is wrong!

[David459689]

For most people, the word is always "bacteria" so please can this be changed? I accept that for biologists the term "bacterium" exists, but it is very specialist, I think.

[iiai]

David459689, please see the comment of Rosie-L below!

[Pickle1116]

In English we never use "bacterium", only bacteria.

[Rosie-L]

That depends whether you are a biologist/medic or not. The reason 'bacteria' has come into common English usage and 'bacterium' has not is because we mostly need to refer to more than one. However, in Romanian, 'bacteria' refers to just one:

Bacterie - bacterium (singular)

Bacteria - the bacterium

Bacterii - bacteria (plural)

Bacteriile - the bacteria

[Sue781295]

The fact remains that in English ordinarily it is just bacteria, not bacterium.

[iiai]

This is a medical chapter, so we have to be more rigorous :)
In Romanian we have:

• bacterie - singular
• bacteria - sg., articulated
• bacterii - plural
• bacteriile - pl., articulated

Please see the Rosie-L comment above!

[ArthurOKostendt]

The correct English word for a single bacterial germ is "bacterium." Bacteria is the plural.

[willy591061]

I am doctor. You are absolutely right