"Potatoe"
"On June 15, 1992, Quayle altered 12-year-old student William Figueroa's correct spelling of "potato" to "potatoe" at the Muñoz Rivera Elementary School spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey.[19][20] Quayle was widely lambasted for his error. According to The New York Times[21] and Quayle's memoirs, he was relying on cards provided by the school, which Quayle says included the misspelling. Quayle said he was uncomfortable with the version he gave, but did so because he decided to trust the school's incorrect written materials instead of his own judgment."
Some say tomāto, some say tomăto, but when there is more than one, everyone has to add –es to make it plural. The English words tomato and potato are sometimes mistakenly made plural by simply adding an –s. But these two words, along with a few others, need –es in the plural. This is the complete list:
- echoes
- embargoes
- heroes
- potatoes
- tomatoes
- torpedoes
- vetoes
Most words that end in –o are pluralized by simply adding –s.
This includes all words that end in vowel + o:
- embryos
- patios
- radios
- studios
- zoos
And all shortened words:
- autos (automobiles)
- discos (discothèques)
- kilos (kilograms)
- memos (memorandums)
- photos (photographs)
- typos (typographical errors)
And proper names:
- Eskimos
- Filipinos
- Picassos
- Romeos
And many other words, including:
- avocados
- casinos
- cellos
- hairdos
- kimonos
- logos
- pianos
- silos
- solos
- stilettos
- tacos
- torsos
Many of these words were borrowed from other languages, notably Spanish and Italian. Interestingly, the words potato and tomato came into English via Spanish but need –es in the plural.
Also note that quite a few words can be spelled either way, including
- banjos / banjoes
- buffalos / buffaloes
- dominos / dominoes
- ghettos / ghettoes
- halos / haloes
- innuendos / innuendoes
- mangos / mangoes
- mosquitos / mosquitoes
- mottos / mottoes
- tornados / tornadoes
- volcanos / volcanoes
- zeros / zeroes
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