Bruce Only "Sheep" is a valid illustration of a peculiar plural.
"Fat" generally is indivisible. On the other hand, if you are talking about chemicals, you wouldn't use the word "fats" in order to describe different chemicals in the plural, each one of which is a particular chemical of the type "fat". "Fruit" is usually understood to be used in a generic (or collective) sense, as in "Apples are fruit. The fruit of the earth.". Interestingly, having Googled to check, the first entry I saw said "n., pl. fruit or fruits". Actually "The fruits of the earth." is a valid alternative given that it implies a number of different types of fruit. Chris Mason ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Hewson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, 19 December, 2006 7:04 AM Subject: Re: Plurals and language confusion > Hi folks, > > ... > > plurals: > when talking of two ot more instances of the same object. > fruits > fats > sheeps > > ... > > Regards > Bruce Hewson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
