Invisible wrote:
> I just spent 20 minutes reading various Wikipedia articles on grammar.
> 
> My head hurts now.
> 
> All I was trying to figure out is why there's no such word as "sheeps". 
> Several other words have this property, but I have no idea what it's 
> called.
> 
> Also: "transparent" is an adjective. But what the hell is 
> "transparency"? [Aside from also happening to be a noun. God English is 
> complicated!]

Generally (there are probably exceptions, this is English), for any 
adjective ending in -ent of Latin origin, the word ending -ency is the 
state or quality of having the property denoted by the adjective, and 
sometimes can refer to a specific thing that has this property.

An example:

"While campaigning for the presidency, the president promised that there 
would be _transparency_ in his administration.  However, since taking 
office, there have been many things that are not at all _transparent_."

Regards,
John

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