Animal plurals [Was: The earth v. Earth]

[Joel S. Berson]

I was once told (actually, I once read) that "fish" is the plural for
two or more of the same kind, "fishes" for more than one species.  So
"I caught two fishes" might mean "they were of different kinds" -- an
unusual utterance, I suspect.  But "There are many fishes in the
Coral Sea" supposedly means "many kinds of fish", not "millions of
fish".  (In the last, while the "millions" presumably include many
species, I suppose because I'm not calling attention to the different
species, I have used the "fish" plural.  But I may be wrong there.)

I don't know whether the same applies to catching or seeing other
animals, like bears, elk, etc.

Joel

At 8/8/2007 04:50 PM, Dennis Preston wrote:
>BUT, for me, almost all fish plurals are bad, catching or seeing:
>
>I caught/saw two
>perches
>basses
>pikes
>etc...
>UGH!
>
>
>BUT the more syllables the better:
>
>I caught/saw two
>crappies
>muskies
>flounders
>etc...
>(not too bad)

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