Any English Teachers indahouse?...

This might see man unnecessarily short reply given your effusive question, but does it actually matter as long as it reads OK?

I would have "oystercatchers" and

You expect rules in English?  Its just a total anarchy.

ie

I before E except after C
or when sounded as A, as in neighbour or weigh.
Albeit, there's weird words like leisure and neither
(foreign and counterfeit don't make sense either).
Seismic and seisure and protein and height...
the rule is quite useless but possibly might
just yet be worth saving with some alteration:
(oops: heir, their, and sovereign... decaffeination)
so yes it's quite simple, as I'm sure you can see:
I before E when it wants to be!

Well, you’re right with pretty much everything you’ve mentioned, sheep are singular, but you refer to a flock of sheep for multiple animals, the paragraph is indeed correct, individuals of any given species are usually referred to as a singular, and plural when there’s more than one. I can’t give the specific rules, but I kind of instinctively understand what grammar rules apply.
As far as I can see, you’re correct in all the instances you’ve mentioned.

It's easier with fish.

What’s the correct way to refer to plurals of animals, please? I need some rules here!!!

It’s quite simple, there are no rules.

English language must be an absolute nightmare to learn as a second language if you want to get all the nuances correct...

I agree with the above.. If you break it down.. Language is about effective communication.. So if it's fairly obvious what you are saying (in context) then you have successfully communicated.

Of course it matters a lot more in official or legal communications but in general it's not such a big deal.

Erm, I wondered about plants too lots of red clover, lots of knapweed, several pyramid orchids...don't know.

Next question, do Latin names not have plurals, I presume not....Trifolium pratense, Centurea nigra, Anacaptis pyramidalis....

It’s easier with fish.

Consider the octopus.

Apparently 'octopuses' is generally considered correct but I find 'octupi' feels more correct.

See also cactus and cacti.

sheep are singular, but you refer to a flock of sheep for multiple animals,

"The sheep were scattered in the field, so the farmer rounded them up with his trusty sheepdogs"

It’s easier with fish.
Consider the octopus.

Apparently ‘octopuses’ is generally considered correct but I find ‘octupi’ feels more correct.

Shoot me now!!

Consider the octopus.

But what about fish?

But what about fish?

I swear, somebody on here once made a case for octopodes as a plural for octopus

If you are unsure about whether you should be using plural or singular, you can usually rearrange your sentence to eliminate the problem.

I would also try to stick to either one or the other where possible, although that may be dictated by the overall tone and feel of your article.

My general rule of thumb is to ask myself if I would actually say what I've written in an face to face conversation. If not, then I'd change it to something I would.

I swear, somebody on here once made a case for octopodes as a plural for octopus

Is it an English word, Greek or Latin?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/the-many-plurals-of-octopus-octopi-octopuses-octopodes

Goose < Geese = fine.

Moose < Meese = bad

This is an etymology question. English is a mongrel language stolen from Greek, Latin, Norse and a host of other invading civilisations.

Apparently ‘octopuses’ is generally considered correct but I find ‘octupi’ feels more correct.

Octopuses is correct English. Octupi is flat out wrong, that assumes a Latin source when the source word is Greek. If we're hypercorrecting then it'd be octopodes.

I swear, somebody on here once made a case for octopodes as a plural for octopus

It's more correct - or at least, less wrong - than octopi.

I before E except after C

... when the vowel sounds like "ee."

or when sounded as A, as in neighbour or weigh.

What? Are you Australian?

Goose becomes geese, so moose must be meese, with little baby moslings, right?

I am an actual English as a second language teacher and it's sh*t like this that keeps me in a job. In short the rules are more like guidelines, but at least we don't have genders, or, for the most part, cases.

Moose < Meese = hate them to pieces.

English is a mongrel language stolen from Greek, Latin, Norse and a host of other invading civilisations.

Stolen? Invading Greeks. Really?

English is a mongrel language mainly evolved from invading Germans (Saxons) and French (Normans) with a bit of Norse (Vikings). Like other languages, since then it has also borrowed from Latin (for many centuries the “lingua Franca” of the church and the educated European), Greek, and more recently from many of the colonial countries’ languages.

The main roots in French and German give it a lot of flexibility (or complexity) in grammar and vocabulary which as native speakers we are fortunate to take for granted.

I before E except after C

Well, there is this.. good luck, etc.  🙂

Feisty old Keith lives in the sovereign state of Brunei and is heir to the reign of the sheik. He’s a foreign species in a society of nescient financiers. With sleight of hand, in a heinous heist at the hacienda of the Reich, Keith seized a freight of eight buddleias. His forfeit was to either guess the height of a gneiss statue of a deity or to whistle a leitmotiv; he deigned to do neither, feigning injury to be pardoned.

Keith deifies heifers and feeds them seitan when they are deficient in protein. This he does conscientiously, reining in the dose if he suspects a surfeit may induce seizure. In such a case he would inject codeine into their veins.

After noticing seiches on the lake, Keith was prescient enough to efficiently conduct a scientific seismic survey of the weir before fishing with his seine net.

In his leisure time Keith relaxes among teil trees, veiled in his beige eider-down peignoir while proficiently spinning a dreidel, sipping from a seidel of beer.

Heigh-ho, that’s sufficient weight to the tale of weird Keith’s conscience. Don’t even start me on his neighbour Deirdre, an expert on ancient glaciers!

The end.

What? Are you Australian?

No - weigh sounds the same as way  ei becomes an A sound

Goose < Geese = fine.

Moose < Meese = bad

Mouse - mice

House - houses

Grouse - Grouse

No – weigh sounds the same as way  ei becomes an A sound

I can’t think of any other way to pronounce it.

My general rule of thumb is to ask myself if I would actually say what I’ve written in an face to face conversation

That's a 'no' then...

Should sandpipers and plovers be singular (no S)as the rest of the species are written that way? The way I was taught. Not because that is the plural term but because the sentence mixes singular and plural for no apparent reason.

Mouse – mice

House – houses

Grouse – Grice

Depending on where you shoot of course

I've been thinking on this thread for a few hours now, and I've decided that you should just be consistent and add a 's' to the end of the singular name on every case. Give it an apostrophe too just in case there's some possessive thing going on.

Mouse = Mouse's

Goose = Goose's

Moose = Moose's

Sounds like an opportunity to make a pigs ear of it

Stolen? Invading Greeks. Really?

OK yes, "stolen" was the wrong word. Borrowed? Evolved? Enhanced?

I meant "other invading nations" in additions to the influences I mentioned.

No – weigh sounds the same as way ei becomes an A sound

I can’t think of any other way to pronounce it.

In my dialect, weigh rhymes with hey not hay.

I can’t find any rules anywhere concerning the correct pluralisation of specific animal species

This is a stylistic question rather than a grammatical question. Specific publications might have their own house style. In general, if you're talking a species, add the plural "s," but just write around it to sound natural." E.g. "Different fishes have different feeding habits," means the same as "Different species of fish have different feeding habits." However, "Different sheeps..." just doesn't sound right so "Different species of sheep..." would just avoid the problem.

In my dialect, weigh rhymes with hey not hay.

Are these not pronounced the same? They are here.

Mongoose - Mongeese

How do you pronounce hay and hey differently?  They are homophones are they not?

My fave bit of englisd language is  "ough"   six different pronunciations

How do you pronounce hay and hey differently?

One sounds like "day," the other sounds like "neigh."

Different sheeps…” just doesn’t sound right so “Different species of sheep…”

Aren't they differing statements? Like, all sheep in a field are different but may be of the same species.

Are these not pronounced the same? They are here.

How do you pronounce hay and hey differently? They are homophones are they not?

Not even remotely.

One sounds like “day,” the other sounds like “neigh.”

Can't tell if serious... those sound the same to me. Day, hay, neigh all lean into the -ay vowel, whereas hey, weigh, eight are -ey.

Do I have to upload a voice sample?

In my dialect, weigh rhymes with hey not hay.

I’ve never heard anyone pronounce it like that.

Dude, you've actually met me. 🙂

I think you do have to uplead a voice sample as to my -ey and ay  are the same sound

~confuzzled

Does this work?

OneDrive Linky

I cannot believe you did it either and there is a difference in your voice!  Mind blown!

Eyup and sithee.

Mind you one pronunciation sounds pure lancashire - the other has southern intonations 🙂

Coming from anyone other than someone in Scotland I'd take that as a slur.

🙂

The English lesson

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.

Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese, yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, yet 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 the plural of vow is vows, not vine.

I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
If 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 booth be called beeth?

If the singular is this and the plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be named kese?

Then one may be that, and three may be those, yet the plural of hat would never be hose;

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him, but imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!

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

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead; it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat;
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,
Or dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there's dose and rose and lose,
Just look them up, and goose and choose.

And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk it when I was five,
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five!

Anonymous

Dude, you’ve actually met me.

Which is why I’m even more confused.

OK - here's another example I just randomly came across:

"... please keep your dog on a short lead wherever you are to protect vulnerable ground-nesting birds such as lapwing and skylarks. ..."

Why TF is lapwing a zero-plural, and skylark isn't one?

There are multiple species of both.

There are multiple species of both

You cannot have multiple species of a species.

Lapwing Vanelus vanelus or something is a member of a group of species collectively known as lapwings.

Skylark Aluda arvensis is a again a species, no doubt the world has similar species in the same group.

If you see a field with a load of skylarks ground nesting they are likely all the same species, same with lapwings.

@burntembers I've never seen the first bit of that before, brilliant, thanks, and thanks @cougar for the recording too.