ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by jimmys_best_mate

Chickens is the correct plural of chicken. Unless you're arguing with the OED who have 'don't count your chickens' in their Kindle edition?

I could be wrong, but I would not just rely on a dictionary in this case. Consider the title of the article in BBC. It is uncountable noun, so chicken is plural. This is not the case where you say "I have 5 chickens and a goat."

Sir, many things are correct, w.r.t. modern English or spoken English.

You will also see plural words like 'forums,' 'stadiums,' 'terminuses,' 'formulas' etc., as correct in modern or spoken English, often even in dictionaries, but they are wrong, and the correct words are 'fora,' 'stadia,' 'termini,' 'formulae,' etc..

P.S.: Just clarified from an English teacher, in English many such words have both singular and plural forms, and even if several chicken(s) are eaten, one would still say "Tonight we ate chicken."

Lost of 'wrongs' will become 'right.'

Originally Posted by pmaitra

I could be wrong, but I would not just rely on a dictionary in this case. Consider the title of the article in BBC. It is uncountable noun, so chicken is plural. This is not the case where you say "I have 5 chickens and a goat."

Sir, many things are correct, w.r.t. modern English or spoken English.

You will also see plural words like 'forums,' 'stadiums,' 'terminuses,' 'formulas' etc., as correct in modern or spoken English, often even in dictionaries, but they are wrong, and the correct words are 'fora,' 'stadia,' 'termini,' 'formulae,' etc..

P.S.: Just clarified from an English teacher, in English many such words have both singular and plural forms, and even if several chicken(s) are eaten, one would still say "Tonight we ate chicken."

As ever, Yes and No. You are correct in saying "Tonight we ate chicken" as you are just describing what you ate. If you were to quantify that slightly you may have said "Tonight we ate several chickens". Of course, by this stage you will be fed up with chicken and moved on to sheep.

This really has ruffled your feathers, hasn't it?

Originally Posted by pmaitra

I could be wrong, but I would not just rely on a dictionary in this case. Consider the title of the article in BBC. It is uncountable noun, so chicken is plural. This is not the case where you say "I have 5 chickens and a goat."

The use of 'chickens' in the story is correct - they are giving out more than one bird, therefore rather than one chicken the people will receive several chickens.

Originally Posted by pmaitra

P.S.: Just clarified from an English teacher, in English many such words have both singular and plural forms, and even if several chicken(s) are eaten, one would still say "Tonight we ate chicken."

If you were describing the meat you had eaten you would say 'chicken', if you were describing which animals you'd eaten you'd say you'd eaten 'chickens'.

The word comes from the Saxon cicen, the plural of which is cicenu. The 'en' at the end of the word doesn't make it a plural.

Where else could you drop into a forum at breakfast and find a discussion on semantics?


And why is there not a "semantic?"

Originally Posted by tom_dkg

Where else could you drop into a forum at breakfast and find a discussion on semantics?


And why is there not a "semantic?"

I give up, I have no idea. Tell me why.

Originally Posted by jimmys_best_mate

The use of 'chickens' in the story is correct - they are giving out more than one bird, therefore rather than one chicken the people will receive several chickens.

In the title, however, it does not quantify, does it? It is true they are giving out more than one bird, but it still is "mass noun" or uncountable noun? It's like "rice" versus "5 grains of rice."

Originally Posted by jimmys_best_mate

If you were describing the meat you had eaten you would say 'chicken', if you were describing which animals you'd eaten you'd say you'd eaten 'chickens'.

The word comes from the Saxon cicen, the plural of which is cicenu. The 'en' at the end of the word doesn't make it a plural.

Great explanation on the etymology. Thanks.

Again, as I said, it's not about the '-en,' rather, whether it is countable. Perhaps there are differences in pedantics or how people interpret things; I just confirmed from a third person, but again, like the other gentleman said, yes and no.