Well, the plural form of mouse depends on context.  I naturally say mice. When I was a trainer at Caterpillar, I chose to follow the usage of "mouses" of the key person I was training in the pilot phase for the regular cited (and expensive, and risky) project on controlled language writing and machine translation.  I did check all kinds of user manuals and online (mid 90s), yet the plural form was nowhere to be found since the computer accessory was always cited in the singular form.  I didn't feel that it was worth risking the acceptance of such an important project on a small issue of how to pronounce the plural form of the computer accessory, so I regularly said "mouses" in that environment.  And I say "mice" to my kids today.

The word "fish" is a bit more ambiguous.  There is a sign in the aquarium/museum in Chicago that refers to "fishes".  I seem to use both "fish" and "fishes" interchangeably for the plural.

Jeff

Originally written by Jeff Allen There is a sign in the aquarium/museum in Chicago that refers to "fishes".  I seem to use both "fish" and "fishes" interchangeably for the plural.

There is a distinction between the plural forms of "fish" and "fishes."  The two sentences below have different meanings:

1.  There are three fish in this tank.
2.  There are three fishes in this tank.

Sentence No. 1 means that the number of swimming-things in the tank is three, and they may or may not be of the same species.  Sentence No. 2 means that there are three separate species of fish in the tank.

Fascinating! I actually assumed (which goes to show you) that only fish and not fishes were plural.

There are many fishes (not fish) in the sea?  

Nanna

Interesting examples of plural forms! I came across the word "monies" (as the plural form of "money") in a contract and I found it hard to identify the word at first. Then I looked it up in the dictionary and this is what I got:

drawing account

Accounting: Name of the account (in the account books of a sole-proprietorship or partnership firm) which records all monies taken out of the business by the owner or partners.

equity method

Method of accounting used by a parent firm for monies invested in the subsidiaries. The parent firm records the investment in its balance sheet at a valuation that takes into account the profits and losses of the subsidiaries since their acquisition. Also called equity accounting. See also cost method.

Marisa

http://www.englishforums.com/English/MoneyMoniesFoodFoods/ccvgj/post.htm 

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=286505 

Hi Jacek!

Thanks a lot!!! Very useful information!

Marisa