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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Geese, Men, etc... Why?
Hi,
I wonder why plural goose becomes geese, plural man becomes men, etc...
Is there a rule that explains this, or is it just arbitrary and we just have to memorise such "exceptional" words?
They don't fit any of the s, es, ies, ves rules.
Thank you.
I wonder why plural goose becomes geese, plural man becomes men, etc...
Is there a rule that explains this, or is it just arbitrary and we just have to memorise such "exceptional" words?
They don't fit any of the s, es, ies, ves rules.
Thank you.
Top answer
It is pretty much arbitrary . . some words are just historically odd.
- It is pretty much arbitrary .
- .
- some words are just historically odd.
- Plus, some words are used for both the singular and the plural.
- For example: A deer and a herd of deer.
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2 Answers
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It is pretty much arbitrary . . . some words are just historically odd. Plus, some words are used for both the singular and the plural. For example: A deer and a herd of deer. (Never "deers"). A sheep and a flock of sheep (never "sheeps"). So, you must learn the exceptions to the "add an S to make a plural rule."
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Both "goose" and "man" come from Old English. In Old English, plurals weren't usually formed by simply adding an -s/-es to the ends of nouns. For instance, the plural of "goose" (originally spelled as "gos") was "ges" in Old English, which is most likely why we use "geese" in present-day English.
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