one fish, two fishes

[Victor Steinbok]

  So is "fish" more like "sheep", "shrimp", "fruit" or "people"? Always
a puzzle in ESL environments.

     VS-)

On 8/1/2010 6:00 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> At 8/1/2010 05:42 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>> On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>
>>> "Young fishes just produced from the spawn." [In passing, _shouldn't that be young *fish*_"?]
>>
>> Probably not. _Fishes_ was still the usual plural - at least in
>> Saint Louis and points south - in both print, especially in the titles of plates (Fishes and Other Aquatic Life of The Gulf of Mexico),
>
> But that's about multiple species. The book on reef fishes I read
> some years ago said more than one, of one species, is "fish".
>
> Joel
>
>> speech by the time that, During The War, I had learned to read. Indeed, the plural _fish_ in place of _fishes_ still feels a little fishy to me.
>> Cf. also the title of a popular song of the day, Three Little _Fishes_. Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical
>> Knowledge.

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