On 3/19/09 12:27 PM, Margery Allcock wrote:
This may be the UK/US divide, or it may just be my personal opinion <G>: I think the plural of "fish" is "fish", however many different species you may have. And similarly with "sheep": lots of them are still "sheep". And "lace" too: however many pieces of however many styles you have, the word is still just "lace".
It's a biologist-layman divide. When "fish" means "scaly critter that swims", it's one fish, two fish. When "fish" means "species of fish", the plural is "fishes". For everyday use, we just say "kinds of fish" or whatever; the biologist needs to be a bit more terse: "There are thousands of fish in this lake, but only four fishes."
It's contrariwise with "pants". I have one pair of pants; Haband stocks 600 pairs of this pant and a thousand pairs of a more-popular pant. Nobody who doesn't own a warehouse bothers with the distinction. -- Joy Beeson http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where spring is poking up. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
