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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Aren't some words ending in S often used in the plural without "'s" or "es"
To me, I have three beautiful cypress sounds perfectly acceptable even though I can't defend the practice. On the other hand, we know three grasses sounds quite normal, while I can't see why there should be a difference
Can anyone confirm my observation, and if so, what's the difference--thanks all
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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How should one cypress be pronouned in American English?
A Cypress, a Cypress or a Cyperss ?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thank you, One Look did not give Encarta, which has a audio service. I always read the accent in the back. (ce-press).
Wrong.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>audio service try American Heritage - joe (click the little speaker icon) friday
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I recently saw a log posting that pointed out that some plants get normal type plurals and some get what they call the zero-plural. One might say, for example, that "I planted wheat" or "I planted corn" but not "I planted pea" or "I planted potato." I've been looking for the posting but can't find it. There was no easy to apply rule that the poster could work out. Edit: Aha! I found it. HereI'd suggest printing it for easier reading. Note: Asterisks (*) before words or sentences indicate incorrect usages. Yes, descriptivist linguists do recognize the existence of incorrect usages
Last edited by Faldage; 08/19/2007 10:31 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've seen/heard it for animals, too. Deer hunters: "We shot three buck." African safari people: "We saw a lot of zebra."
I don't know of any grammar rules for this.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The one "rule" I know is that when you have, say, five neon tetras in your home aquarium you have five fish. If you have five neon tetras, a plecostomus, and two kissing gouramis you have three fishes.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Anna: Another good example. Very mysterious
Fal: Indeed, good point. In fact, I have 319 Arizona cypress and three Italian cypress. Thus I have 322 cypress but only two cypresses
In your example, however, there is in fact a distinction: "wheat" and "corn" are collective (?) nouns where "pea" and "potato" are not
Or am I begging the question--that is, in the classic meaning of the phrase
But thank you for that link. I am overwhelmed
dalehileman
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addict
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addict
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I've seen/heard it for animals, too. Deer hunters: "We shot three buck." African safari people: "We saw a lot of zebra."
I don't know of any grammar rules for this. Could be "shot three bucks" sounds too much like squandering $3? But the best stripe conventions are loaded with zebrae. 
ÅΓª╥┐↕§
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In your example, however, there is in fact a distinction: "wheat" and "corn" are collective (?) nouns where "pea" and "potato" are not
Or am I begging the question--that is, in the classic meaning of the phrase
But thank you for that link. I am overwhelmed
"Pea" is a back-formed singular from an original collective "pease" giving us the back-formed plural "peas", for what that's worth. The difference in corn and peas isn't all that much when you think about the things themselves. Corn comes in ears and peas come in pods. You could count the grains of corn but you'd never say that you were counting corns, not in American English, anyway. You could say you were counting peas. However you could count ears of corns or pea pods or even grains of corn. Go figure.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Fal, thank you for that. More and more do I pity the wretched alien who has to learn our Mother Tongue
dalehileman
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stranger
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stranger
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Could it be that peas and potatoes are planted individually and corn & wheat are sown broadcast?
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Carpal Tunnel
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The corn being referred to here would be maize, which is planted individually. But linguistic traditions might hold on to conventions from older definitions of the word. We still speak of dialing a phone and tracks on a CD.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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maize, which is planted individually Yep: 3 kernels to a hill; after sprouting, leave the strongest one and pull the weaker one(s).
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Corn originally, before there was much maize eaten by people in England, meant grains or small pieces. Corned beef is treated with larger corns of salt instead of table salt.
But saying that made me realize that I would talk about grains of wheat but a bushel of grain. Back to the countable aspect.
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