Because the English language is known for its rigid consistency of pluralization.
Mouse -> Mice
Louse -> Lice
House -> Hice
Moose -> Moose
Cher -> Cher
My sister was once bitten by a moose!
Are you sure it wasn’t the other way round and she has bitten into a mousse?
ox - oxen
box - boxen
equinox - equinoxen
xerox - xeroxenDie - Dice
Pie - Pice
Tie - Tice
Lie - LiceAll these lice and misinformation…smh
But also
die - dies
If we’re talking about tools.
Lice <- Louse
Tice <- Touse
Pice <- Pouse
Dice <- Douse
This dude thinks that the singular of hooves is “hoove”
Language is descriptive, so there’s nothing stopping you from using “rooves”, other than what typically results from using words others may not understand. Get enough people over long enough a timeline, and “rooves” becomes the norm, and “roofs” becomes archaic. Just gotta put in the effort.
I can groof to that!
Ew! Perv.
Not really, unless they’re booving that groofy moof. Then, they’re lost to us, in the land of boxen and meeses.
That sounds exactly like the kind of thing a dirty groofer would say!
MODS BAN THIS ONE RIGHT NOW WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Dialectic morphology is a mofo.
eg. “w00t” is a word. 🤮
🤮
is a word
Literally
Linguistics is a descriptive science.
Language though is not science, it’s a cultural practice. Adhering to a specific set of rules to signal belonging to a specific cultural subgroup is perfectly normal; and deviation from those rules is not a socially neutral act. When and how you deviate signals a lot of things about you and what you’re saying.
That’s why slang is fascinating. It always tells a story. Whether it’s English Prep School jargon that breached containment, whitewashed AAVL, group in-jokes, unconventional emojis, etc., a slang word says a lot about the person who uses it.
That is to say, if you unironically start saying “rooves”, I can’t say whether you’ll start a trend that will ultimately change English forever (weirder things have happened). But I can assure you that the immediate effect will be that people will label you “tumblr weirdo”. Which would be a correct assessment, so that’s effective subtextual communication. Yay linguistics!
Explain prescriptive linguistics
I think I’ve been saying rooves my whole life. I don’t think I’d generally write it that way, but it feels more natural to say.
If I have, I’m not sure anyone’s noticed. My speech patterns are odd though, so it might not be terribly noticable. It’s also possible I’ve never had to say the word. It’s not common that you need to pluralize roof.
I am Groof.
Check out this sweet moof!
I checked out your ma’s sweet moof last night 👉😏👉
I’ll accept groof if it means we get moof and rooves.
rooves and roofs are both accepted as correct though? Roofs being the standard is a pretty new thing, and not the more common one everywhere
I haven’t once seen ‘rooves’ used, let alone be considered as correct.
Wiktionary says it changed in the 17th century, so depending on your definition of “new”, sure. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roofs
It doesn’t sound weird to me personally, although it does look weird when written out.
It is how I was taught in the 80s, and I went to school in Europe, and the US. So, pretty recently it was quite common.
Groofy.
The trooves are out there.
Okay, but think about this: Groofy.
As soon as I typed that, I changed my mind. No longer defending groof.
One might say it sounds … goofy.
I propose we use roofies! It sounds cute and probably isn’t taken already.
We are groof.
Having Regular English would be nice given some of the silly stuff English has.
Like, really, what’s the root of “worse, worst” and “better, best”? “Wo” and “Be”???
Wyrs- and bat- making their way through PIE, Proto-Germanic, and sometimes Dutch.
B-but that’s even more irregular!
the plural of roof should be roof. fite me
Reef
Would most native speakers actually pronounce “rooves” differently from “roofs”? Is “grooves” already pronounced differently from a hypothetical “groofs”?
f is the voiceless labiodental fricative and v is the voiced labiodental fricative.
Basically for roofs your vocal cords don’t vibrate on the final f sound. For rooves your vocal cords vibrate on the final v sound.
I know the difference between f and v, the question is whether it makes a difference in this specific case and if yes, whether most native English speakers actually know that. I’m not a native English speaker and words that end in -ooves aren’t that common (when is the last time you said “grooves” or “hooves”?).
English is famously inconsistent about how written letters are pronounced, and there are a lot of accents.
Grooves and hooves are more common words than roofs.
I think I would notice if someone said groofs or hoofs (although that’s also a word with a different meaning), but I’m really not sure I’d notice rooves vs roofs.
I am a native speaker. The pronunciation difference between those two words, even though one doesn’t actually exist, is only the vibration of vocal cords in the final sound. It’s like belief and believe.
There is a difference, but it depends on accent. I don’t think anyone would notice in speech if you switched though
I think there is a slight difference. Ooves is slightly longer and softer sounding than oofs.
Would most native speakers actually pronounce “rooves” differently from “roofs”?
I think so, but might depend on thier accent or dialect .
Is “grooves” already pronounced differently from a hypothetical “groofs”?
Thats a joke, groofs isn’t actually a word(yet 😅), the singular of grooves is groove.
Thats a joke, groofs isn’t actually a word(yet 😅), the singular of grooves is groove.
What exactly do you think “hypothetical” means?
I somehow skipped that word when I read it 😅
