We'll begin with box, the plural is boxes,
but the plural of ox is oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
but the plural of moose is never meese.
You find a lone mouse, or a whole nest of mice,
but the plural of house is houses not hice.
The plural of man is always men,
but shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of a foot and you show me two feet,
but I give you a boot, should a pair be called beet?
The singular's this and the plural is these,
but should the plural of kiss ever be keese?
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine she, shis and shim.
I can't take credit for the above and have no idea who wrote it. If you know, drop me a line and I'll add a credit for it.
I've come to the conclusion that Kate Hardy must be one very popular author. Why? Because whenever I check my stats, the link to her blog has always had more outclicks (that's the way in which visitors leave this blog) than any other link. Maybe it's appropriate that I've just started reading her first Modern Extra, "The Cinderella Project".
PS: Don't forget that if you do decide to buy a book after clicking on any of the links on this blog, the commission will go to helping the Nantwich Writers' Group save up to invite guest speakers along to our meetings, arrange outings, etc. And as the mouse said as he stood pee-ing in the ocean, "every little counts". |
Would that make you feel better if I said building plural form is so much absurd in Estonian? ;) Too many sub-types and not uch logic involved :)
And not that it was enough - there are 14 cases (nominative, genitive, partitive, illative, inessive, elative, allative , adessive, ablative, translative, essive, terminative, comitative, abessive) and the system and use of case endings is of much more complexity with too many subtypes :) I get confused all the time...
Just being glad, reading and pronouncing has just very few exceptions... in comparison to English ;)
1:21 PM
Hi Elsa. Thanks for dropping by :) I don't imagine Latvian is the easiest language to learn, no. My daughter lives with a Croatian lad, and his language sounds bad enough! Somehow I can't see her learning it! Mind you, you never know, do you? I'd love to try learning Welsh but... well, we'll see. Getting my tongue around some of those sounds is going to be pretty tricky! I had enough trouble just trying to pronounce Llangollen!
2:53 PM
Richard didn't like the photo I was using so I've changed it. He thought the other one made me look old. Nothing strange about that really considering how old I am!
3:42 PM
Help!
I had a whole list of singulars and plurals that time and time again trip me up - like alumni and alumnus (not to mention alumna and alumnae) - and I can't find it.
And, Sharon, don't get a mutual friend of ours started on synopsis vs. synopses, not to mention "synopsises".
Gotta find that cheat-sheet or the day is done!
4:31 PM
I writ you a poemses!
5:03 PM
The English language is a mess when you really start to break it down. So much doesn't make any sense! Oh well...
I've only read Kate H's Cinderella Project, I've never read any of her other stuff. But after CP, I want to read more! She's great!
5:16 PM
Eva. I've made a mental note to never mention spelling and synopsis in the same sentence whilst in her presence.
Minx. Is that right?
Karen. I'm still only about 10 pages in but I already love it. It has a fresh, chick-litty feel about it and few authors have such good character depiction after so few pages. If the rest of the book is anything like the start, this won't be my last KH, either.
6:13 PM
Oh blimey, I'm really blushing now!
Thanks for the kind words. Really appreciated, as the current book is going like treacle.
9:55 PM
I get loads of hits from Kate's blog, too, Sharon. I also got a load from you yesterday!
7:27 AM
At least treacle's sweet, Kate. And the words weren't kind, as such, they were the truth :-)
Liz. Yes, I noticed that a few had bobbed off in your direction yesterday. I have to admit that the stats fascinate me.
11:33 AM
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