The Swearing Parrrot

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the Plural of ox is oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose would never be meese;
You may find a lone mouse, or a whole nest of mice.
But 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?
If I speak of a foot and yhou show me your feet,
And 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?

Then, one may be that, and three would be those,
yet the plural of hat would never be hose;
We speak of a brother and also of brethern,
But though we say mother, we never say motheren.

Then, the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So English I fancy you will all agree,
If the most bizarre langauge you ever did see.
Unless you learned it by the age of 3,
or your name is Koko and you live in a tree
and you never worry about morphemes like me.





Click here to return
now to the Lesson
Click here to see
more on morphemes