Irregular plural nouns |– words that end in -en | Grammar | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians today we're going to
be discussing more irregular plurals so
this is the irregular plural parts to
the to inning because we really want to
focus on this n particle I'll explain in
a minute so previously we discussed the
idea that there's you know one regular
plural and then there are a couple of
different kinds of irregular plurals so
we have the word dog and it becomes dogs
we have the word leaf and it becomes
leaves I'd like to introduce something
else to the word child is also an
irregular plural because it's plural
form is not child's but in fact you
ready say with me children whoa that's
weird what is that about
like I said English is not a predictable
language few languages are when we think
of English as one solid block of wood
what we're actually seeing is this
lashed together raft made of spit hope
and history so it's your job as a writer
and the speaker of English to make of
this Crooked Timber something straight
to borrow a phrase and then mangle it so
the question is what is the deal right
and the answer is that it has to do with
English language history and heritage
English comes to us from Old English
which if you look at it now it kind of
looks like German because English is a
Germanic language that's the term
linguists use so in Old English there
were a bunch of different ways to make
something plural you know some some some
nouns would become plural by adding an
en some you could add an S some you
would add an R and part of this depend
on what part of England you lived in at
the time there were a bunch of different
regional variations today this en ending
only applies to basic
three or four words these are all you
need to remember for this one weird en
thing so the en ending plural only
applies to child ox brother or sister
and even those these are really rare I
bet you don't even know what I'm talking
about the plural of brother originally
was brethren the plural of sister is
sistren or Susteren but these are so
rare and brothers and sisters is so
common that we don't even need to
consider them so really the only the
only weird en plurals that are going to
be in common usage are children and oxen
and unless you know your family raises
musk oxen or you're an ox driver you're
probably not going to be using the word
ox very often and if oxen are a big part
of your life you probably knew how to
PluralEyes them already just from
hearing people talk about them your
entire childhood so I'm going to cross
that off to the only thing you need to
worry about is the en in children child
becomes children now you're probably
wondering David you know if there's the
word ox and ox becomes oxen what about
box why is the plural of box boxes and
not boxing to borrow a gag from Brian
Regan the simple truth is that it has to
do with this words origin ox is a native
Old English word box comes to us
originally from Greek and then Latin and
then French that's how it came to
English I'm sorry if that's not a very
satisfying answer but that's how English
works English is this language that is
composed of a bunch of different puzzle
pieces all mashed together by time
history and repeated invasions which are
totally metal but I'm getting away for
myself the important thing to remember
is that for this irregular plural this
en ending really unless you work with
oxen or unless you are leading some sort
of
old-timey folk revival where you have to
refer to brethren and sistren child to
children is really the only change you
need concern yourself with all this can
be summed up Boop
just like that you can learn anything
damn it out now if you're still with me
I would like to relate a humorous
historical anecdote that comes to us
from the 15th century English printer
William Caxton now this story comes to
us from about the Year fourteen ninety
and I just want to use this story to
illustrate just how different how
dependent on what part of the country
you were living in was on the language
that you spoke because before mass
transit and mass communication media
which William Caxton was a part of
because he was one of the first English
language printers before any of this
technology allowed us all to communicate
with each other basically just had
letters and most people were illiterate
and talking to each other and since it
wasn't really easy to get from place to
place to place before the advent of cars
most people didn't really go very far so
here is the story which I will translate
for you from Middle English goes like
this
so these merchants were traveling from
the Thames river which flows through
London and they're trying to get to
zealand here which is in the modern-day
netherlands this is incidentally this is
a this is england this is the southern
south east coast of england we're trying
to get to zealand and this is a distance
of about 160 miles give or take but they
can't make it there because of bad winds
they stopped here at foreland to refresh
their stores they stopped for groceries
basically and then they realize that
their london english and the english of
the place where they are which is maybe
60 miles out of london maybe is mutually
incomprehensible man goes into a house
asks the woman of the house for eggs she
doesn't understand the word eggs because
the word she uses for eggs is Aran the
word egg is Norse and he says I would
like some EGIS and she says I don't have
any EGIS I don't speak French and he
gets angry because he's like I don't
speak French either I'm English he's
as do you have any eggs she says I don't
know what that is and finally someone
says I think he means Evan do you have
any egg and she said Oh Evan and of
course here buy some and it just goes to
show you that before the advent of mass
communication we could have had
variations from as Caxton putted Shire
to Shire to Shire each little town had
its own variant of language and it
wasn't until everything was united by
this technology that taxed and worked
with the printing press that people
started to become literate and converge
toward what we would consider a more
unified standard of English all right
that was just a little bonus silly video
yokan Larina anything uh Dave it out