Comments on: “rock” verses “rocks”

By: Warren

Warren — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:24:00 +0000

If you find something logical out, let me know, as far as I am concerned it is just an arbitrary rule.

By: mithro

mithro — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:58:58 +0000

Why does he/she/it add an ’s’ on the end of the word, while I and you don’t? What logical reason is there for it (as it obviously has nothing to do with pluralization. Normally we add “s” (or “es”) to pluralize a noun, there must be more going on here.

By: Warren

Warren — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:21:19 +0000

Yeah nothing to explain, that’s just the conjugation of verbs in English.

I jump, you jump, he jumps, she jumps, it jumps, we jump, they jump.

By: Paul "TBBle" Hampson

Paul "TBBle" Hampson — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:52:02 +0000

I’m not sure it needs explaining per se… That’s just how habitual verbs work. They get an ’s’ with a singular subject, and no suffix with a plural subject. (In fact, it more likely drops the ’s’ for a plural subject, but the actual difference is buried somewhere in an exercise book in my cupboard)

He squeegles, she squeegles, we all squeegle for ice cream!

I think the mental dissonance you’re suffering is because rock is also a noun, and you want your singular noun to not have an ’s’ and your plural noun to have an ’s’.

(I have a vauge recollection that there’s another class of English verbs that doesn’t do this, but I can’t for the life of me remember. This vauge recollection is pointing me towards strong VS weak verbs…)