Countable noun with irregular plural form [duplicate]

How can I express a countable noun together with its irregular plural form? For example, we may have the following sentence:

Find all critical point(s) of this function.

Since we do not know if the function has one or more critical points, we use the expression "point(s)".

What if the noun has an irregular plural form?

For example, should one say

Find all maximum/maxima of the function.

instead of using the parenthesis as we did in "point(s)"?

Solution 1:

Parenthetical plural is mainly used in statements, not when trying to determine the number of something. In the latter context we just use ordinary plural, and it's understood that the result might be just a single item.

So you would write

Find all the critical points of this function.
Find all the maxima and minima of the function.