Why Do We Pluralize “Mouse” as “Mice” but Not “House” as “Hice”?
English plural rules can be wild! For example, we say mouse → mice, but not house → hice. Why is that? Let’s dive into the strange world of irregular plurals in English.
🐭 “Mouse” → “Mice”
“Mouse” is one of the oldest words in English, tracing back to Old English and even Proto-Germanic roots. Back then, plurals often changed the vowel sound—a process called ablaut. That’s how we got “mice.”
🏠 “House” → “Houses”
Even though it rhymes with “mouse,” the word “house” didn’t follow the same linguistic path. It took a regular route and added -s in modern English, like most nouns today.
🤯 Why the Difference?
Because English evolved from many languages—Germanic, Latin, Norse, French—it inherited multiple plural systems. Some words stayed irregular, some became regular, and others just confused us!
🧠 Fun Fact
Goose becomes “geese”... but moose stays “moose”! English, you’re weird—and we love you.
🔗 Further Reading
📎 Related Posts
Which plural form always confuses you? “Children”? “Cacti”? Or just “moose”? Drop a comment below and share your favorite English oddity!
No comments:
Post a Comment