Doesn't anyone else wonder why the plural of 'ox' is 'oxen' but the plural of 'box' isn't 'boxen'?

Question

what about foxen?
or chicken poxen? small poxen?

Answer 1

How to say it
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead
For goodness sake don't call it 'deed'!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)

A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive.

I'd mastered it when I was five!

Answer 2

Well, it has an explanation actually.

Originally, there were several inflections for the plural of nouns. Later, most plurals were simplified and substituted with the pluralization rules we use today.

However, some nouns remained IRREGULAR. You can add to your list: tooth-teeth, child-children, etc.

If you are interested, you can do research on the evolution of the language. You'll get a lot more information. :D

Answer 3

Lol .. English is a tough langyage ... I liked the poem the previous poster gave!! Here's another ..

When the English tongue we speak
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it’s true
We say sew, but likewise few?
And the maker of a verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard,
Cord is different from word,
Cow is cow, but low is low,
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose and dose and lose,
And think of goose and yet of choose,
Think of comb and tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll and home and some.
And since pay is rhymed with say,
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood and food and good;
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sounds and letters don’t agree.

And here are a couple of interesting sites.

Answer 4

Nope I guess it's just a really wierd plural

Answer 5

English is a funny language.

Answer 6

this is why English is a very difficult language for immigrants. The grammer is very hard for them.