Why do some English words have the same singular and plural? Examples are mostly animals - deer, fish, moose, sheep, swine, buffalo - but also aircraft, stone (weight), head (cattle). Is it related to the Norman/ Saxon divide noted in Ivanhoe? | Notes an (2024)

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Why do some English words have the same singular and plural? Examples are mostly animals - deer, fish, moose, sheep, swine, buffalo - but also aircraft, stone (weight), head (cattle). Is it related to the Norman/ Saxon divide noted in Ivanhoe? | Notes an? ›

For those wanting the short answer - because many English words are not English words. Plural forms obey the spelling rules attached to the language of origin.

The plural form of the word “sheep” is sheep only. It comes under the few exceptions of the English language which do not change their form when changed to plural from singular. Therefore, option a “sheep” is the right answer.

Some words in English are identical in their plural and singular forms because they are considered "uncountable" nouns.

Fish can be the plural form whether there's multiple fish of the same species or multiple fish of different species. Fishes is usually used in scientific contexts to refer to multiple species. When referring to fish as food, it's an uncountable noun, and therefore shouldn't be used as a plural.

Sometimes, people add an s to moose, but that is incorrect. Moose derives from Algonquian, a Native American language. It kept the same plural ending it had in its original language instead of adopting the normal s ending of most English plurals.

If you look in a dictionary you will see that "deer" comes to us from the German "tier", a beast. German does not form the plural by adding an "s" as English does, so one deer, two deer, etc.

– as Britain colonized, traded with, and absorbed people from other parts of the world. What this means in practice is that quite often English has retained synonyms (or near synonyms) acquired from different sources.

Why does English have so many words that mean the same thing? Because English isn't a pure language and it has evolved through many, many centuries from Norse/Germanic languages, which themselves changed over time and later Latin/Romantic languages.

Some nouns do not have plural forms because they cannot be counted. These are called noncount nouns, or mass nouns. Some common noncount nouns are water, rice, sand, butter, mud, rain, advice, homework, progress, and music.

Is moose plural or singular? ›

The plural of “moose” is the same as the singular: “moose.” It's one of a group of plural nouns in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns. So it's wrong to write “mooses.” For example, you might write “There are several moose in the forest.”

swine /ˈswaɪn/ noun. plural swine. swine. /ˈswaɪn/ plural swine.

plural deer also deers. 1. : any of various slender-legged, even-toed, ruminant mammals (family Cervidae, the deer family) having usually brownish fur and deciduous antlers borne by the males of nearly all and by the females only of the caribou : cervid.

Nouns that don't change in their plural forms (called “zero plurals”) include “series,” “aircraft” and “species.” But most zero-plural words refer to animals, e.g., deer, moose, sheep, elk, walrus, antelope, fish, buffalo, salmon.

Octopuses ✅

Generally, when a noun enters into English, it is pluralized as an English word rather than in its original form. Octopuses may sound peculiar to some, but this is the preferred plural. It's also peculiar to debate octopuses when the octopus is a solitary creature.

noun,plural geese [gees] for 1, 2, 4, 8; goos·es for 5-7.

sheep /ˈʃiːp/ noun. plural sheep. sheep. /ˈʃiːp/

This word is an irregular plural noun The noun deer is both the singular and the plural They saw one deer or They saw two million deer Deer is the preferred plural form of deer, although deers (rarely used) is also an accepted plural. Hi Deer is both the singular and the plural form.

Why do we say deer and not deers? ›

Deers is an accepted plural, but it is rarely used. The word deer comes from the Old English word, deor, which means four-legged animal, beast. Also the Dutch word, dier and the German word, tier. Deer is one of a set of words with irregular plural forms, such as sheep and fish.

1. Frisian – most similar language to English phonetically. Frisian (the Netherlands' 2nd official language) is phonetically the closest language to Modern English and is mutually intelligible with Olde English. This isn't surprising since the Anglo-Saxons and the Frisians had recent common ancestors.

Except for Frisian, Dutch is linguistically the closest language to English, with both languages being part of the West Germanic linguistic family. This means many Dutch words are cognates with English (meaning they share the same linguistic roots), giving them similar spelling and pronunciation.

Most irregular verbs exist as remnants of historical conjugation systems. When some grammatical rule became changed or disused, some verbs kept to the old pattern.

So, English is made of Old English, Danish, Norse, and French, and has been changed by Latin, Greek, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Dutch and Spanish, along with some words from other languages. English grammar has also changed, becoming simpler and less Germanic.

About 45% of the English vocabulary originates from the French language. How did this happen, and what do we do with the similarities between the two languages that result in French-English words? The modern English language has been influenced and modified by many other languages over time.

Still, it's a stretch to say that Korean has the most words of any language in the world because one of its dictionaries has over a million headwords.

Cambridge Dictionary

Fun Fact about English #4: The longest English word without a true vowel (a, e, i, o or u) is "rhythm" 🎼.

What are the words without vowels? The words without vowels are why, hmm, hymn, xlnt, wynd, myths, thy, dry, cyst, etc.

If you're referring to several species of fish, though, the regular plural “fishes” is often used instead. For example, “The aquarium contains many different fishes, including trout and carp.”

How do you say cow in plural? ›

Usage notes

The plural cows is the normal plural for multiple individuals, while cattle is used in a more collective sense.

cactus /ˈkæktəs/ noun. plural cacti /ˈkækˌtaɪ/ or cactuses also US cactus.

¹ goose /ˈguːs/ noun. plural geese /ˈgiːs/

'Dog' is a singular noun. It used used to talk about one animal and one animal only - Max the dog. But when we spoke about Max and his friend, we used the noun dogs. 'Dogs' is a plural noun.

salm·​on ˈsa-mən. plural salmon also salmons.

If you call someone a swine, you dislike them or think that they are a bad person, usually because they have behaved unpleasantly toward you.

The plural of 'Bacon' is 'Bacons'.

donkey /ˈdɑːŋki/ noun. plural donkeys.

What is the plural of Buffalo? ›

buffalo /ˈbʌfəˌloʊ/ noun. plural buffalo or buffaloes.

If you were reading that last section carefully, you already know that the plural of moose is, in fact, moose. In the same way that the plural of deer is deer, moose are another ruminant mammal with the same name in both singular and plural.

Fish can refer to multiple fish, especially when they are all the same species of fish. Fishes, however, usually refers to multiple species of fish, especially in scientific contexts.

wife /ˈwaɪf/ noun. plural wives /ˈwaɪvz/

The simplest way to differentiate between these two terms is knowing that the term 'women' is the plural form of the word 'woman'.

It is not correct to say “sheeps.” The plural of “sheep” is “sheep.” We say “sheep,” whether it is one sheep, two sheep, or a million sheep! It is one of the many irregular plural nouns in English and does not follow the regular rules for plurals.

The words “moose,” “sheep” and “shrimp” do not have a plural form, but they can be used in singular or plural form as they are.

In this sentence, sheep, moose, and deer are examples of irregular nouns because these nouns keep the same form whether they are singular or plural. The context clue, herds, indicates to the reader that the plural form of these nouns is being used.

sheep /ˈʃiːp/ noun. plural sheep. sheep. /ˈʃiːp/ noun.

Why can't we say sheeps? ›

The Old English form of sheep was scēp (among a few others), a neuter noun, whose historical plural ended in u. After the loss of this ending, the singular and the plural merged; hence one sheep ~ many sheep today.

English term or phrase: the FBI are or is? Explanation: In American English, the singular would be used. In British English, either can be used.

The plural of “moose” is the same as the singular: “moose.” It's one of a group of plural nouns in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns. So it's wrong to write “mooses.” For example, you might write “There are several moose in the forest.”

Nouns that don't change in their plural forms (called “zero plurals”) include “series,” “aircraft” and “species.” But most zero-plural words refer to animals, e.g., deer, moose, sheep, elk, walrus, antelope, fish, buffalo, salmon.

¹ fox /ˈfɑːks/ noun. plural foxes.

Irregular plural nouns are nouns that do not become plural by adding -s or -es, as most nouns in the English language do. You're probably familiar with many of these already. For example, the plural form of man is men, not mans. The plural form of woman is women, not womans.

plural tomatoes. tomato. /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ Brit /təˈmɑːtəʊ/ noun. plural tomatoes.

(plural shrimps, shrimp)

salm·​on ˈsa-mən. plural salmon also salmons.