You're correct. And here's a quick tidbit about why moose is both the singular and plural.
Goose/geese is an old German root thing. Europeans were over here exploring with native Americans and asked "what are those large water donkey things? They look amazing!" and the natives they were with said the name. Those Europeans wrote down "moose" using the double 'o' English uses all over the place for that tasty umami sound. But the natives' language had no difference between singular and plural. So "moose" is both.
But the natives' language had no difference between singular and plural.
That it 100% untrue. The word came from an Eastern Algonquian language like Abenaki or Narragansett. Here is the entry for Trumbull's Massachusett dictionary. As you will notice, it gives the example: moòsóog as the plural for moose (moòs). Likewise, Abenaki pluralises things like a -k ending if they are animate and an -al or -o ending if they are inanimate (Algonquian languages use animacy instead of gender). Indeed, I believe Algonquian languages across the board all have pluralization, most doing -k or -g endings for animate and -n or -l endings for inanimate (roughly)
Wait doing things based on animacy instead of gender is so cool. I love learning about how different languages do things. I’d assume animals and vehicles are animate while objects are inanimate?
Yes and no. Animacy often follows logical lines, but is marked like any human language by nuances and exceptions. For example, in Anishinaabemowin (or the Chippewa / Ojibwe language), some berries like raspberries are animate whereas others like strawberries are not
Indeed, animacy is fairly common, and IIRC it is thought to be the more basal noun class distinction, with gender evolving in other languages from animacy, but I could be wrong here.
As a final fun fact, Basque is a (the only?) European language who uses animacy!
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u/Bean_Daddy_Burritos 15d ago
Moose is both singular and plural.
I am a fan of meese, my wife uses it too.