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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Fish or fishes

A lot of fish or fishes???
  

Top answer

Dear friend, In modern English, the plural of fish is fish , not * fishes , eg, My sister was singing happily because we'd caught so many fish . Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

— Andriy Lapin

  • Dear friend, In modern English, the plural of fish is fish , not * fishes , eg, My sister was singing happily because we'd caught so many fish .
  • Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff
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4 Answers
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Dear friend,

In modern English, the plural of fish is fish, not *fishes, eg,

My sister was singing happily because we'd caught so many fish.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff
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A lot of fish

But I think 'a lot of fishes' is also possible if you're referring to different species of fish.
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Ivanhr,

regarded as food, fish is a noun with no plural: a wine that goes well with fish. Otherwise, there are two plurals, fish being much commoner: We caught several fish. Fishes is now used chiefly for different species: valuable food fishes such as the haddock and turbot.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff
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Both are correct, Anon. It depends on the context.

I had a lot of fish for dinner - you ate fish (not meat, vegetables, chicken, etc).

We have a lot of fishes in the aquarium - there are many different species in the aquarium.
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