Make Your Editor Cry: Beef (Awkward Plural)
BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)
Beef in terms of meat is a mass noun. It has no plural form.
beef: the flesh of adult cattle such as a bull, steer, or cow of oxen, bovine, or bison used as food
In the sense of animal flesh, beef is a mass noun and has no plural form. Therefore, in that sense, the word “beefs” is not a thing, and “beeves” is considered archaic and therefore also, you know, not a thing.
Examples:
Beef is the third most widely consumed meat in the world.
Beef can be cooked to various degrees, from very rare to well done.
However, in terms of a complaint, dispute, disagreement, or argument you can certainly have more than one beef. You can have as many beefs as you want.
Q: Do you have beef with the new reporting structure?
A: Not exactly. I have multiple beefs with the new reporting structure.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.