Pokemon Grammar: Plurals

Porygon-Z

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    • Seen Aug 17, 2010
    I get really hacked off when people type "pokémons". It looks idiotic.

    It's "Pokémon" not "Pokémons":

    "Have you seen all of the bug type Pokémons" is wrong!
    "Have you seen all of the bug type Pokémon" is correct!
    The plural of Pokémon is the same as the singular:

    "One Pokémon"

    "Two Pokémon"

    The same applies for individual species of Pokémon like "Sheep" (Singular) and "Sheep" (Plural):

    "One ZUBAT"

    "Two ZUBAT"


    Don't you agree?
     
    I definately agree about the word Pokemon (don't have accents' :( ) and I get little irritated when people write Pokemons but I think for individual species it depends just like animals in real life!

    I'm comfortable writing, "I want a couple Zubats."

    But if I'm talking about Ursaring I'd probably leave it the same. "Look at all the Ursaring."

    Some I do and some I don't. =/
     
    Waffle-San said:
    I definately agree about the word Pokemon (don't have accents' :( ) and I get little irritated when people write Pokemons but I think for individual species it depends just like animals in real life!

    I'm comfortable writing, "I want a couple Zubats."

    But if I'm talking about Ursaring I'd probably leave it the same. "Look at all the Ursaring."

    Some I do and some I don't. =/
    Click to expand...
    That's exactly what I do...

    Anyway, I do get annoyed when people say 'Pokemons', but what really drives me nuts is mispronunciations of Pokemon names.
     
    The Hitmon (excluding Tyrogue), Porygon, and Eevee (Excluding Eevee) line all have a distinctive words to describe the groups as a whole.

    Hitmons or Hitmonsters
    Porygons
    Eeveelutions


    A Porygon-Z and Porygon2 together are referred to as two Porygons, Vaporeon and Jolteon two Eeveelutions, and Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan Hitmons/Hitmonsters.

    Still:

    A Ralts.
    A couple Ralts.

    One Surskit.
    Two Surskit.

    It all depends on the name.


     
    From context within the games, I think it's interchangeable. "I've seen a lot of Pikachus today" sounds just as correct as "I've seen a lot of Pikachu today", although the latter sounds like you're talking about a single member of the species.

    The only pokemon that I don't think ever get pluralized names are those with finishing "s", "x", "z", "ch", or "sh".

    "I caught several Shinx" sounds better to me than "I caught several Shinxes" o_0
     
    Even though I have never been guilty of doing any of this, since I rarely talk about pokemon in plurals :D, I can sort of sympathize with people who do it. Generally it isn't something so annoying that it requires any attention. Me getting angry over that would be like complaing over not adding the accent aigu to the e in pokémon because it's pronounced poh-kay-mon not po-key-mon. Yet I always hear people saying po-key-mon instead of 'ay' like it is intended to be (like seriously if you're gonna add a french accent mark into the word pronounce it right); I've even done this before so me complaining over it would be sort of hypocritical.

    I can see where you are coming from though. Maybe that is just your pet-peeve? Personally I consider myself to be a great writer--no concididness intended--but when it comes to petty things like pokemon, even too lazy to add the accent aigu, I really don't care.
     
    The plural of a Pokémon's name is just its name. It might sound correct because you are so used to saying it another way (ie, if Pikachus sounds a correct as Pikachu) but it's... not. Watch the anime, take note of the games (specifically the Pokédex!). Any time there are more than one of a species, they'll ALWAYS use the regular name as the plural.

    I'll admit even though I've been reminding people of this for years and years, I still add an S when talking about multiples sometimes. English is a language where the plural is important. It can be confusing if you don't know whether I'm talking about a single Cherrim in a herd? bouquet ♥ group or the entire group. So if I am talking about the group, I'll specify either with a quantifier of sorts (group) or I'll add an S to Cherrims. Japan doesn't have this problem because when you say "hana", you could be talking about one flower, ten flowers, or an entire field's worth of flowers. Pokémon would be the same way and I guess when the localizers of Pokémon here in NA were deciding on grammar to use, they figured it was too much of a pain to make plurals for the names so the singular just doubles as the plural.

    But Pokémons is never right and you should feel bad if you say it. XD;
     
    Lightning said:
    The plural of a Pokémon's name is just its name. It might sound correct because you are so used to saying it another way (ie, if Pikachus sounds a correct as Pikachu) but it's... not. Watch the anime, take note of the games (specifically the Pokédex!). Any time there are more than one of a species, they'll ALWAYS use the regular name as the plural.
    Click to expand...

    Nuh-uh. Having wached some earlier episodes semi-recently, I can remember a few times they've added an "s" to the end of a Pokémon's name. Never said "Pokémons", though.

    Pokémon emergency - "spearows"
    Challenge of the samurai - "beedrills"
     
    Well, actually, I didn't knew about this, this would be helpful to me here after, I know.
     
    I Laugh at your Misfortune! said:
    Nuh-uh. Having wached some earlier episodes semi-recently, I can remember a few times they've added an "s" to the end of a Pokémon's name. Never said "Pokémons", though.

    Pokémon emergency - "spearows"
    Challenge of the samurai - "beedrills"
    Click to expand...
    Ugh, with that though I believe is that, I think they were refering to a particular thing that the pokemon owns.
    For example:
    This: 'It was the Beedrill's nest, that's why it attacked you.'
    Rather than: 'It was the beedrills nest that's why it attacked you.'

    They weren't saying the quantity of the beedrill, they were saying the things the beedrill owned.

    For me, I sometimes use it if I am in a hurry or rush. But I never use 'Pokemons' I find it wrong and I like perfecting my grammar and speeling even though I mihgt now be entirely sure of everything.
     
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