Plural of Accepted

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Author: Sela Narian

We are speaking in whatever language they speak in the books, which has been conveniently translated for us into English by Robert Jordan. Thank you, sir! As such, we use the English word 'Accepted,' which, while it came from a Latin root (passive participle acceptus of accipere, which means 'to receive,' and is itself a conjoined verb of ad (to) + capere (to take), though that's neither here nor there), it still receives an ENGLISH indicator of past tense, being '-ed,' which comes from the Old English word 'dyde,' which became our 'did.' It's used as a suffix because that's how they did it in Early Germanic, from which Old English received a good amount of its grammar.

They are in a state of having been Accepted. It is a perfect passive participle. It is then used as the noun describing the state thereof; it's rather common. It would be given a different form for pluralized state, were this Latin, but unfortunately, it really isn't. We speak English. Proper grammar in English, as well as Whatever Language They're Speaking In Randland, Apparently, dictates that one not pluralize a noun that is derived from a perfect passive participle, as it is really only an adjective, in its basest description, and we don't pluralize adjectives in English to fit plural nouns. The noun to which it is fitted is merely implied.

In other words: Whenever we say 'Accepted,' what we're really meaning is 'Accepted Persons,' or 'Accepted Gals,' or 'Accepted Dealy-Bobs,' or whatever one might like to insert as the implied noun. The word 'Accepted,' one might note, never is itself changed for pluralization. The same rule applies to other WoT-ish words, such as 'Forsaken.'

And that is much more than you need to know, and less than I think everyone should know, in order to remain interesting!