---
title: Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese — how Mova does on the tests · Language
description: Lesson 10 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 4 of 11 tests right, exam 2 of 4, every question with the options, the student's choice, the right answer and why it chose.
---

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# Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese

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**Tests:** 4 of 11 right · **Exam:** 2 of 4 right · **Kind:** ★★★ · **Understood:** 4 of 15 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 10 of the language course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: [the lesson in the corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/).

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Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: [the lesson's questions in the corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/).

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### Test 1 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t1}

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Your mate goes "it's one die, two dice, so one mice, two mouse, easy." What's right?

- **1.** One mouse, two mouses — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** One mice, two mices — no support
- **3.** He's right, one mice, two mouse — no support
- **4.** One mouse, two mice — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t1/)

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### Test 2 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t2}

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A Geordie nan says "Get the bairns their tea, pet." ("Pet" is a friendly word like love; "tea" here is the evening meal.) Who gets fed?

- **1.** The baby animals — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The children — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** The neighbours — no support
- **4.** The pets — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t2/)

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### Test 3 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t3}

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Your little brother insists "two gooses" is fine because "two mongooses" is. What's true?

- **1.** Both should change to -geese — no support
- **2.** Goose is old English and changes to geese; mongoose is from Marathi — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **3.** He's right, both words just add -es like every other word — score 3
- **4.** Neither word has a plural — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 10, line 14: «Mongoose comes from Marathi, a language of India, so its plural is mongooses.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «marathi» (+4); the same doer «mongoose» (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t3/)

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### Test 4 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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What would happen if every English plural just added -s?

- **1.** Nothing, they already do — no support
- **2.** We'd say mouses, foots and childs, and the old forms would disappear — **✓ the right answer** · score 2
- **3.** We'd have no plurals at all — no support
- **4.** Every word would end in -en — **← Mova's choice** · score 4

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 4 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 10, line 11: «Many words ending in -o add -es (potatoes, tomatoes, heroes, echoes), but some just add -s (pianos, photos, zoos).», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «end» (+2); the same doer «many words» (+2). The right option, 2, scored 2. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t4/)

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### Test 5 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t5}

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A Gen Z shop sign says "Fresh bagel's, they slay." ("Slay" means are amazing.) What's the fix?

- **1.** Fresh bagel's', they slay — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Fresh bagels, they slay — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** Fresh bagel's is correct — no support
- **4.** Fresh bagels's, they slay — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t5/)

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### Test 6 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t6}

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In a cartoon, a fisherman shouts "I caught five fishes!" holding five cod. What's the normal way to say it?

- **1.** I caught five fish — **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **2.** I caught five fishies — no support
- **3.** It's perfect, fishes is the only plural — **← Mova's choice** · score 5
- **4.** I caught five fishs — score 4

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 5, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 10, line 13: «Dice was first the plural of "die"; today many people also say "a dice" for one.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same thing acted on «plural» (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). The right option, 1, scored 4. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t6/)

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### Test 7 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t7}

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Your cousin says octopi is the "real Latin" plural. What's the catch?

- **1.** Octopi is the only plural in dictionaries — **← Mova's choice** · score 8
- **2.** The plural is octopus-es-i — score 7
- **3.** Octopus is Greek, so octopi is built on a mistake, though dictionaries accept it — **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **4.** He's right, octopus is Latin — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 8, against 7 for the next best. Its support: lesson 10, line 10: «Octopus comes from Greek; octopuses is the usual English plural, octopodes is the Greek-style one, and octopi is common and listed in many dictionaries though…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «octopi» (+4); the same place «many dictionaries» (+4). The right option, 3, scored 6. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t7/)

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### Test 8 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t8}

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A Glaswegian dad says "Two weans and a dug, that's me." ("Dug" is dog in Scots.) How many children?

- **1.** Two — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** One — no support
- **3.** Three — no support
- **4.** None — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t8/)

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### Test 9 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t9}

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Your sister writes "There are three deers in the park." Fix it.

- **1.** There are three deer in the park — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** There is three deer in the park — no support
- **3.** There are three dear in the park — no support
- **4.** There are three deeres in the park — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t9/)

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### Test 10 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t10}

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Mouse, mice. A louse is a tiny insect that can live in hair. Using the same old pattern, what is its plural?

- **1.** louses — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** leese — no support
- **3.** lice — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** lousen — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t10/)

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### Test 11 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t11}

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A puzzle: in a made-up language the plural of "pod" is "peed" and of "tok" is "teek". What is the plural of "lob"?

- **1.** leeb — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** lobs — no support
- **3.** lobben — no support
- **4.** lib — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/t11/)

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### Exam question 1 · formal language · right ✓ {#e1}

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the plural "mice"?

- **1.** It preserves an ancient pattern in which the vowel within the word is altered — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** It constitutes a spelling error subsequently accepted — no support
- **3.** It is borrowed from the French language — no support
- **4.** It is formed by the regular addition of "-s" — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/e1/)

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### Exam question 2 · formal language · right ✓ {#e2}

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Identify the principal reason for which the plural of "mongoose" is not "mongeese".

- **1.** The word derives from Marathi and bears no relation to the English word "goose" — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** The form "mongeese" is reserved for formal registers — no support
- **3.** The word possesses no plural form whatsoever — no support
- **4.** The animal is too small to merit an irregular plural — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/e2/)

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### Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e3}

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Ascertain the correctly punctuated notice.

- **1.** Tomato's 50p — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Tomatoes' 50p — no support
- **3.** Tomatoes 50p — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Tomatoe's 50p — no support

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**Why:** Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/e3/)

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### Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e4}

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Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the plural "children".

- **1.** It is unrelated to the word "child" — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** It is formed by the regular addition of "-s" — no support
- **3.** It is a modern invention of the twentieth century — no support
- **4.** It combines an Old English plural with a further plural ending in "-en" — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/e4/)

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- ← previous: [9. Irregular verbs: goed, brung and other brave mis…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/9-irregular-verbs-goed-brung-and-brave-mistakes/)
- next →: [11. Grammar puzzles, part one](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/)
- ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/)