Why do we say sheep and deer when talking about more than one, and not sheeps and deers, like cats and dogs?

Answer 1

Contra one answer, these words are NOT "mass nouns" because we can and do COUNT "one sheep, two sheep" (no matter how boring!)

Mass nouns are NON-count - you do NOT speak of one or two 'furniture(s)' or 'stuff(s)'. But the idea is perhaps not all that far off -- because it DOES have something to do with certain animals being treated 'in the mass'/collectively.

Note that the animals for which the singular and plural forms are the SAME (other than 'fish' and types of fish) are HERD animals -- sheep, swine, moose, deer, reindeer, caribou, elk, antelope, buffalo, bison. All of these are often spoken of and treated collectively.

Dogs and cats are not, of course, animals found in herds (and certainly not herded by humans, esp. cats!)

Yes, there are also exceptions like "pig(s)". But note that the "swine" DOES work this way. In the same way, we have cow-s, but also "cattle". When you add to this the fact that, though "sheep" stays the same while "lamb" becomes "lambs", I think it may be based on how typically the animal may have been treated 'individually'. This might even say something about the different classes of medieval England. Those who had large herds called them, individually or (more often) collectively) "swine"; similarly, it is the wealthy farmer who has many "(head of) cattle". But a poorer individual might have only a couple of "pigs", and perhaps (like "Jack in the Beanstalk") one ONE "cow".

---------------------

Another possible factor. The standard means of forming the plural in Modern English (developed in MIDDLE English) -- by adding an -s-- was successfully applied to most forms, but many (by no means all) COMMON nouns descended from OLD English continued to follow older patterns.

This explains why irregular plurals like mice and men, and geese, are COMMON words -- the type that tend to most resists being forced into new rules. Yet even most of this generally submit -- hence we have"houses".

Note that principal that living language, esp. common everyday speech, often RESISTS being forced to follow new rules. So do not expect a nice neat pattern here. But do not be surprised that it is precisely the COMMON words that are most likely to be 'irregular' (same goes for verb forms -- the rare one are regular, those we use most [to be, have, come, run, set, etc] don't follow the "rules".

Answer 2

Because nouns such as sheep or deer are mass nouns, ie they apply however great the number, and others such as cat/dog are not. And the plural of fish is .... fish, after all you don't say a shoal of fishes do you.... not if you want to be correct anyway.

Answer 3

d. Horse - Unbridled, free-spirited and free c. Horse - Optimistic b. Snake - Your partner is too emotional and moody and you don't know how to please him/her. b. Horse - Both of you should be able to talk about everything and anything with no secrets kept. a. Human - Probably not. b. White tiger - You think marriage is something precious, once you get married, you'll treasure it and your partner very much. c. Horse - You don't want to be tied by a steady relationship, you just want to flirt. haha!

Answer 4

Because the English language is a bit mixed up.

Answer 5

Well, there's no grammatical law that says we shouldn't. It's a trait we get from Saxon, and it's common in modern German.

Answer 6

Because thats the way English is.

Answer 7

brcause the english language is an ****

Answer 8

Because, jimbob, that's just the way it is.
.

Answer 9

What is the plural of 'fish' then..is it 'fish' or 'fishes'?