Why the heck does 'score' mean 20? How we subconsciously know how to pronounce different plurals.

Why the heck does 'score' mean 20? How we subconsciously know how to pronounce different plurals.

929. While we were looking into why we use the word "score" to mean "twenty," our minds were blown by how many languages still have remnants of a base-20 counting system. And then we learned the secret rules that explain why some plurals end with an "s" sound and others end with a "z" sound. It was quite a week!

| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/score-dogz/transcript

| The "score" segment was written by Susan K. Herman, a retired U.S. Government multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and language instructor.

| The "Cats and Dogz" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com

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Episoder(967)

078 Formatting Hyperlinks

078 Formatting Hyperlinks

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077 Verbification of a Noun

077 Verbification of a Noun

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076 Starting a Sentence With "Hopefully"

076 Starting a Sentence With "Hopefully"

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073 Simplify Your Writing

073 Simplify Your Writing

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072 The The -- The Double The

072 The The -- The Double The

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23 Aug 20075min

070 The Asterisk (Trust Me About Grammar, Not About Baseball)

070 The Asterisk (Trust Me About Grammar, Not About Baseball)

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068 Unlawful Versus Illegal

068 Unlawful Versus Illegal

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20 Jul 20074min

067 Your Versus You're

067 Your Versus You're

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20 Jul 20076min

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