plurals english question?

Question

why is.....

ox, oxen
box, boxes, not boxen

goose, geese
moose, moose, not meesen?

ok but is there a rule, like the "i before e, except after c" rule?

Answer 1

because the words came into English at different times and from different languages
English is a language composed primarily of Latin, Celtic, German, French, Nordic and various other smaller influences such as Indian. English as it is recognised today, is only about 450 years old. Many of the words in English predate English.
added to that, English still borrows heavily from other languages when new influences bring new words.

Answer 2

There are really only six "irregular" plurals in English, and you've hit on one of them.

Old English regular plurals ended in "..en". In most languages, you'll find that most irregularities are in very common words. Ox was important for people in the old days, thus the plural, oxen, has survived. Mouse must have been important, because you have mice. Also louse/lice. There are four others . . .

Answer 3

Because it is not the academics that make up the language.English is the result of the way people speak which is a mixture of their parentage, place they live ,education and occasionally they make up their own words like quiz.As with all living things they evolve and the lovely thing about English is that it changes as it absorbs so many strands.Round here we say wee for small,jamp for the past tense of jump .Everyone says that`s not English but one day it might be cool.

Answer 4

Because english borrows from many different sources, including german, scandinavian, french, latin. It is probably the most irregular widely spoken language. You just have to learn the rules and stick with them.

Answer 5

because english is a very young language...older, more mature and sophisticated languages don't have these problems..they seem to sort themselves out.