this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 102 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Deers

The grammar monster in me is going to need a trigger warning next time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I acknowledge that the council has made a decision, but given that it is a stupid-ass decision I've elected to ignore it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Why is English so ridiculous that the plural and singular of deer is the same word? And why do people want to keep it that way?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

This isn't an english specific trait. Lots of languages have something similar.

For instance, in portuguese we do the same for words that end on the letter S.

Ex: Lápis (Pencil), Vírus (Virus), Ônibus (Bus), etc.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Go speak a language with gendered nouns and leave English alone

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The plural of "moose" is also "moose" but it's not because of English. Moose derives from Algonquian, a Native American language. It kept the same plural ending it had in its original language instead of adopting the normal "s" ending of most English plurals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

"MOOSES" Sounds like moose jesus

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I believe the plural of "moose" is actually "meese".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Goose : Geese :: Moose : Meese

Mouse : Mice :: House : Hice

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

It's Durrs to you city folk.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I'm glad that quick answer is there, no way I'm reading that whole thing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I thought this was common knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Common knowledge doesn't mean people use it. It's easy to forget even if you studied about it in school.

For example you is singular and plural. But we rarely use you for multiple people nowadays, we just go "you guys", "you all", "all of you", or something else to disambiguate.

Languages move towards easy communication and simplicity.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (2 children)

To native English speakers, yes. To non-native speakers, this is yet another bizarre rule they just have to memorize.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Or they could just ignore it because the point of language rules is to communicate unambiguously and the meaning of "deers" is pretty clear while "deer" is ambiguous.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Hey, did you know your profile is set to appear as a bot and as a result many may be filtering your posts and comments? You can change this in your Lemmy settings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

John, you can't license away the plural of deer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Why is the plural the same as singular that does make no sense

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Actually I find it don't make no sense

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What if it's different species of deer? Does it work like fish?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I would say yes

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

I think the wrong spelling is part of the meme adventure