BBC: The face of the real Santa Claus-2

This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English. We're talking about scientists revealing what the real Santa looked like. 

So, we know that St Nicholas lived a long time ago.

Yes, in fact he lived 1,700 years ago, which is getting close to 2,000 years. 

And we're going to explain some vocabulalry in our next headline, which is used to describe thousands of years. 

Yes, this one's from GB News. Santa's true face uncovered as scientists recreate facial features nearly two millennia later. 

And that headline again from GB News, Santa's true of face uncovered as scientists recreate facial features nearly two millennia later. 

This headline tells us that scientists have recreated this face nearly two millennia later. 

And that's the word we're interested inm millennia. 

Yes, as we've said, Saint Nicholas lived almost 2,000 years ago. And in this headline, They've used a Latin word connected to numbers. It's millennia, which means thousands. 

Thousands. So is it plural?

Yes, it is. And it's confusing because I'm sure everyone knows that the usual English way of making a plural is adding an s.

So what's happening here, Neil?

Well, in some words, some people still use Latin plurals. And this is an example. So, people may remember the year 2000 and there was a lot of talk about the millennium because we were entering a new thousand years. So millennium there ending in M means a thousand singular. 

So can we say millenniums, Neil?

Well, yes. Millennia is correct according to the rules of Latin grammar. But because the language we are speaking, Pippa, is English, many people will use the English plural form millenniums. Both are considered correct. 

And are there any other examples, Neil?

Yes, the word stadium. 

What do you think the possible plurals could be there?

Well, I would say stadiums. 

Yes, but you will also hear stadia, which follows that same Latin plural rule. 

Yeah, and another one which is a plural is bacteria. That ends in the a. We don't really hear people say bacteriums. 

We had millennia thousands and it's the Latin plural form of millennium. 

For example, the last ice age was several millennia ago. 

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News. Don't forget, if you want to see an image of the real Santa, you can find one on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.