What's the plural of cul de sac?

[ezapf]

Two of my friends were discussing this. One said cul de sacs, the other said culs de sacs. I have also heard culs de sac.   ???

[SteveD]

The words should be hyphenated: cul-de-sac.  The plural is culs-de sac.

Be careful of the word "cul" in French as it can mean @rse!

[Kingaroo]

In French it means bottom-of-the-bag. I think that literally you would have to pluralize them both: bottoms-of-bags, culs-de-sacs. However, when it is an english term for a dead end street, you can just put the plural at the end of the word. I had a similar argument with my dad when I was a schoolgirl: spoonfuls or spoonsful?

[matchtrick]

If the plural is culs-de-sacs, however, shouldn't it then correctly be culs-des-sacs? It seems to be better French and also satisfyingly comprehensive.

Of course, it all depends on whether you're talking about one bottom of several sacks, several bottoms of the same sack, or several bottoms of several sacks.

The French are complex, aren't they?

Incidentally, Kingaroo: spoonfuls. Cul-de-sac is a compund word; spoonful is an ex-compund word which has become a single word, so the whole word gets pluralised.