p. 9 | SOME PLURALS by The Commonwealth

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1897

SOME PLURALS.

By The Commonwealth

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes; Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese. You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice, But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen? The cow in the plural may be cows or kine, But a bow if repeated is never called bine, And the plural of vow is vows, never vine.

If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet, And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn’t the plural of both be called beeth? If the singular’s this and the plural is these, Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese? Then one may be that and three would be those, Yet hat in the plural would never be hose, And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren, But tho we say mother, we never say methren; Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him, But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.

So the English, I think you all will agree, Is the queerest language you ever did see.

—The Commonwealth.