Homonym Horrors; Alumna, Alumnae, Alumnus, Alumni

These four words confuses me all the time. I know for most of you here probably knows the difference between these words, but for persons like me who knows very little, let me share this guys.

Alumna, Alumnae, Alumnus, and Alumni is considered as homonym. Homonym is define as two words that spelled and pronounced the exact same way but actually have different meanings.

Let's start with Alumna. Alumna refers to a 1 female graduate. To make it easy for you to remember, just keep in mind that Alumna is a girl thing. Also remember that it is in its singular from.

• Example; She is an alumna of Filamer Christian University.

Next word is Alumnae. Alumnae refers to a group of female graduates. It refers to a girl thing but it is in its plural form.

• Example; All three Abellon sisters are alumnae of Angono National High School.

Let us proceed to the next word Alumnus. Alumnus refers to a 1 male graduate. If alumna is for girl, alumnus is a boy thing and its in singular form.

• Example; He is an alumnus of Colegio dela Purissima Concepcion.

Last but not the least is Alumni. Originally, alumni refers to a group of male graduates. However, just recently, it is also accepted to be used for a group of male and female graduates. So I can now say that Alumni refers to a group of male and female graduates.

• Example; We are an alumni of Angono National High School Class of 1997.

I hope I did an outstanding job to differentiate these words. Hope you learn something from this article. And if you do, here is a quick quiz for you guys;

1. Its been a long-standing belief that only the ____ of the Big Four universities get the best jobs.

2. However, recent changes in the industry made it possible for any man, an ____ of any university to get his dream job.

3. Our own boss, Dr. Christine Crus proved that an ____ of a small college can be successful.

Thank you for patiently reading my article guys. By the way, I'm sorry for representing graduates as Hello Kitty and dogs in my photos. This is the only thing that I could find in Picsart.