mice or mouse's

Hello Anon

"Mice" seems like a slightly tired attempt at humour. I'd plump for "mouses".

MrP

Hello Mr.P.

No offense but how does "Mice" have anything to do with humour? And, when you say mouses wouldnt that be possessive? But even if you added the apostrophe s I think it would be mouse is. Seeing as the plural of mouse is mice I'd go with mice.

Hi Festisio,

As MrP mentioned, the word 'mouses' is preferable. In addition, both 'mice' and 'mouses' are plural form 'of mouse'.

My husband is a computer programmer, and he says people he works with say "mice."

Hello Festisio

I can only speak for BrE...

Here, when people say "mice" for the plural of "mouse attached to your pc", the word tends to have an air of "inverted commas", as if the speaker were aware of its faint whimsicality.

MrP

I'm curious to know why your friends want to change the plural of mouse to mouses. Does the different meaning of mouse (attached to your computer vs. rodent) warrant a change in forming the plural?

Interesting question.

We often refer to a silly person as a "goose." If you have two silly people in the office, do we call them "gooses" or "geese"?

Unless the manufacturer

I agree with the ones who say that it should be mouses since this is what the dictionaries say it should be. If you look up in most of the big dictionaries such as ALD (Advanced Learner's Dictionary) and Webster's, you will se that when we speak of a mouse (the animal) it should be mice in plural, and when we speak of computting it should be mouses in plural.

But one

I'm firmly persuaded that the plural of "mouse" will eventually become "mice-(or-should-that-be-mouses)", since that's what people usually say when they need the plural.

Fortunately, one is enough for most of us.

MrP

LOL. Maybe mouse devices would be a good compromise, Mr. P.

In early advertising of these devices, illustrators attempted to make them look more like mice than they actually did. The wires used to rest under your hand in a mouse-tail configuration. Then someone reversed the cord to its present topside location. I don't think it looks like a mouse anymore. Let's call it an electronic point

My husband the computer programmer doesn't see why anyone would prefer "mouses" to "mice" for the computer device. He says there is very rarely any ambiguity about which sort is being referred to, therefore no need to differentiate the plural forms.

MrP - why is it any more whimsical to refer to "two computer mice" than "one computer mouse"? Does one computer mouse also get "inverted co