If the plural of "goose" is "geese," why isnt the plural of "moose" "meese"?

Answer 1

People like to say things like "that's just English...it's weird like that". But that simply means THEY don't know the reason. Usually because they don't know the basic history of the language. (I'm not suggesting everyone DOES have to know such things, but I would suggest not assuming its irrational just because you don't know the reason.)

The examples you give look odd on the surface... but once you know a little bit of the background, it makes a lot of sense.

The basic explanation is these. These words came into English centuries apart, and each followed the patterns used in the language at that time. Once you recognize that some large changes took place in English between "Old English" and "Middle English", due in part to the influence of the Norman French invaders, it's not too difficult to understand.

So here's how it worked -

"Goose" was an OLD English word, and i-type suffixes (including some plural endings) in Old English and and most Germanic languages sometimes changed the sound of the preceding vowel. That' s how we ended up with man/men, mouse/mice, louse/lice, tooth/teeth, foot/feet, etc. as well as other vowel changes between forms (like old > elder,eldest; strong > strength; full > fill; food > feed). Incidentally, another remnant of the Old English system is the "-en" endings of words like "children" ("brethren", though now obsoete, shows BOTH these features.)\

(The Germanic change in vowel sounds between forms is called "umlaut" or "i-mutation")

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/IOE/pronunciation.html#pronounce:imutation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_umlaut


Now in Middle English the old complicated system of endings disappeared and English developed a new standard way of forming plurals -- adding -(e)s. Some words kept their older forms, others went along with the change. Thus the plural of house took the modern plural form [compare German Haus/Haueser], but mouse did not. (Note that the words that keep the old patterns are almost always COMMON words. That's pretty typical of human language. Words that aren't used are easy to force into the current rules. Not so with words and expressions we are constantly using.)


"Moose" is a MODERN English word -- borrowed from Algonquian -- so we wouldn't expect it to follow an OLD English method of forming plurals, including changing vowel sounds and adding obsolete case endings that But what it does do is follow a pattern common for wild "herd" animals and some other creatures, such as fish (which are thought of collectively) -- a pattern that IS still active in the language -- in which the singular and plural forms are the same.

Compare: deer, antelope, caribou, elk, buffalo, bison

Answer 2

I say 'babbies'. When I'm feeling extra silly, I just use babby the way it is for plural.

Answer 3

The plural of "louse" is "lice" and the plural of "mouse" is "mice," but the plural of "house" is not "hice." Go figure.

Answer 4

Or elk elks, or mongoose mongeese (or is it?), mouse meese or others like that? 'Tis a mystery, right enough.

Answer 5

Because, apparently, English is a 'crazy' language.
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/crazy.html

Answer 6

because they if you tried to plural foose it would sound like feces of course

goodness, where is your head?

Answer 7

the english language is a mysterious thing....

Answer 8

It just isn't.
Deal with it.
.