2006-11-26 07:11:47 · 22 answers · asked by doozer_princess 2 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Allergies
He can call them sheeps if he wants to, it might catch on...:D
2006-11-26 07:14:53 · answer #1 · answered by huggz 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The trouble with the English language is that it's not just old English! Our invaders left pieces of their language behind, so from aqua - Ancient Roman for water, we get aquarium, Anyway, Sheep is Anglo Saxon, and is a remnant of their language, so doesn't conform to the rule of adding an 's'. Child to children is another example of foreign influence, this time German.
We were later invaded by the French...1066 and all that.
The English peasants who had the job of looking after the animals used the name they knew....cow, sheep, pig etc, but their French lords, who just had the hard task of eating the results gave us their names for the meat - beef, mutton, pork etc.
2006-11-26 19:45:41 · answer #2 · answered by beagtan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Stupid rules surrounding plurals, that's why!
If enough people start calling a flock of sheep, sheeps then the Oxford English Dictionary would have to put it in their next edition, due to it's common use in everyday conversation! Hey it worked for words like chav and minger!
2006-11-26 15:18:43 · answer #3 · answered by Alison of the Shire 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sheep do not have a mind of their own. Therefore they cannot be called individuals. So, all together, they are just sheepness, or for short, sheep.
Has your husband been trying to count them?
For the benefit of your first answerer, many fish ARE called fishes, when they are alive. It is when they are dead in, say, a fishmonger's shop that they become fish.
2006-11-26 15:15:44 · answer #4 · answered by Barks-at-Parrots 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hey, if it makes him happy to call them sheeps, let him. You're the one that has to live with him. You know it's just sheep, but if really, it's too petty to care about. Good Luck ~~~
2006-11-26 15:15:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because sheep and fish are singular. Why is more than one mouse "mice" and not mouses, goose "geese" and not gooses,
hippopotamus "hippopotomi" and not hippopotamuses. The list is endless.
Try find some more to keep your husband amused.
2006-11-30 06:51:57 · answer #6 · answered by Joanne E 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The same reason more than one moose is still moose. The English language is the worse to learn, too many slang words.
2006-11-26 17:13:59 · answer #7 · answered by FireBug 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because they decided that the collective noun HAD to contain only ONE s...no more, no less...its a sheeps prerogative...
2006-11-26 15:16:07 · answer #8 · answered by Buttsmear 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
he is not dizzy he is right why arnt they as cow is cows horse is horses dog is dogs and so on so yes why not sheep
2006-11-26 15:25:00 · answer #9 · answered by zippy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why doesn't he ask the person who created the English language
2006-11-26 15:19:46 · answer #10 · answered by styce 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋