If the plural of Goose is Geese, Why isn't Mongoose, Mongeese instead of Mongooses
Steve DeMott wrote:
If the plural of Goose is Geese, Why isn't Mongoose, Mongeese instead of Mongooses
Because American English to an even greater degree than text book English is a hybrid language with words adapted from many other languages, often with the rules of that language for plural etc. - but sometimes not. Goose is Germanic, Mongoose is a phonetic spelling of various languages' name for the animal in India - most sources mention the "Marathi" name muṅgūs or the Hindi maṅgūs.
The fact that US English seems to have never met a new word or name it didn't like and adopt also accounts for multiple words for the same thing and our monster size 1,000,000+ word vocabulary. Only around 100,000+ are active and regularly used - most of that number consists of technical jargon confined to one use. Also you will find what appears to be the same word with multiple meanings & counted as a different word in different jargons.
How many meanings and therefore how many different words do you know that are spelled "rock"?
Robertjerl, my biking buddy taught English his entire career. He once told me that most ordinary people know and use only around 10,000 English words and that there are plenty that seldom get used. What you said pretty well confirms that.
One grain of rice is a rouse.
One house; two hice.
Steve DeMott wrote:
If the plural of Goose is Geese, Why isn't Mongoose, Mongeese instead of Mongooses
Not only is the spelling confusing the word meanings are a challenge.
For example you "wind" a clock.
The "wind" blew the leaves off the tree.
Pacific Ocean. Three "C's" Three different sounds
Was was was before was was is.
Your name can be Spelled "S-m-i-t-h" and be pronounced "Domchowski"
All the letters are silent!
Welcome to America.
Canisdirus wrote:
Was was was before was was is.
No. Is came first, and then they decided they needed a word for what happened before is.
many speakers of other languages will actually tell you English is pretty simple and easy to learn. The few little quirks mentioned are not a problem and it is us English speakers who think it must be a difficult language but it really is not. Our grammar is very simple compared to most languages.
Mandarin cannot be too hard, 2yr old kids in China speak it :)
That list is only for English speakers with no exposure to other languages.
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