- Patrick C.
Here is a little curiosity of the French language: what is the plural of éventail, the French word for a hand fan? Let's see... which French words do I know that end in -ail?
There's corail (coral), which becomes coraux in the plural – that one I know, I saw plenty of them in Guadeloupe!
And then there's the famous vitrail (stained-glass window), which turns into vitreux (glassy)... oops, sorry, vitraux!
I have plenty of travail (work) at home with all these travaux (building works)! And émail (enamel) gives émaux in the plural...
So I've got it! Éventail, éventaux... Wrong on all counts...
Just like ail (garlic) and portail (gate), éventail simply takes an “s” in the plural: éventails!
Which gives us, for example: “Filant sur les rails, je contemplais les larges éventails de détails qu'offraient les vantaux de Bordeaux...” (“Speeding along the rails, I gazed at the wide array of details offered by the door leaves of Bordeaux...”). Here rails and éventails take an “s”, while vantail (door leaf) becomes vantaux!