The Injustice of Fishes

I have a serious bone to pick... and it looks something like this:



Thanks google image :)

When I was a small thing way back when... I was criticized for using incorrect pluralization of words. I always called moose - mooses, fish - fishes, deer - deers and of course sheep were sheeps. After being taught for so long that adding an 's' to the end of a word would change it from the singular to the plural, I was being told this wasn't true. Of course, my little girl mind could not wrap itself around this mind boggling concept.

This is when my frustration with grammar class began. I have a huge issue with the english language: We have "rules" but there is ALWAYS an exception. This is just ridiculous. If you have an exception then it really isn't a rule anymore. These singular/plural words fit perfectly into the category of an exception and therefore, I did what I do best... ignored it and did my own thing and added an 's' to everything where an 's' should be.

And now, after all of these years teachers, dictionaries, and the world decide that indeed I was right. Well, at least in one instance. Fishes is now an accepted plural! I am not sure when or how this happened but I am pretty peeved about the whole thing. 20 some odd years I've been looked at like I was incorrect and now they stole it from me and passed it off as their own. All of a sudden my teachers go around saying fishes and everybody just sits there wide eyed and acts as if they have been hearing it their whole lives. Get real. A good chunk of these kids have been going to the same schools I have since forever and I know for a fact it was always fish. Not fishes.

If we want to get technical... fish is the plural if you are talking about a bunch of fish of one species. Fishes is plural if you are talking about a bunch of fishes of different species. So, they half caught on to what I have been saying for years. It is good to know I am not the only one that finds this completely offensive. My friend Sam and I had a convo about this a couple of months ago and I can tell you she is just as unhappy as I am.

According to my spell checker on blogger deers is now a correct plural of deer... but so is deer (minus the 's'). Foiled again!

Now I have to wonder, when will they be taking mooses and sheeps from me too! The injustice must stop.