Make Your Editor Cry: Fish (Awkward Plural)
BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)
The plural of fish is fish or less commonly fishes.
fish: an aquatic animal
The singular of fish is fish. The plural of fish is also fish or less commonly fishes. The plurals fish and fishes can be used interchangeably, but fishes as a plural is considered archaic. Also, marine biologists observe a distinction between fish and fishes. In biology, fishes best translates as types of fish, not plurals of generic fish.
Examples:
Fish range in size from 8 millimeters to 16 meters.
Our pond contains 1 albino fish.
The population is about half goldfishes and half catfishes.
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.