Tropical Fish Forums

[Zowie72]

Should it be "I have 5 corys." or "I have 5 cories." ?

Just something I've been wondering as I have a dilemma every time I write it, not sure which it should be.

Zowie

[UncleWillie]

You could say corydoras and you won't have to worry about it
Really, I don't think it matters. You can think of it like the mollies. Molly - singular, and mollies is plural. You could follow that line of thinking, and go with cories.

[Peterjay]

I doubt there's a hard and fast rule or a generally accepted form. "Y" usually becomes "ies" when expressed in the plural, unless you're talking about a proper name. Whether or not abbreviated scientific names fit that description is anybody's guess. I'd say either is correct.

BTW: considering the way the English language is mangled in online discussion forums, (especially by my fellow Americans) it's refreshing to find someone who cares enough to ask.

[monstrosity]

cories.
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29 G

[Marcos Avila]

[deborah_claro]

There is no rule that applies because the term "cory" is not a noun, as such.

It's an abbreviation for the latin term "Corydoras."

Therefore, if you shorten "Corydoras" to "cory" then you have every cause to pluralize it by using the term "corys."

As the term "cory" is not slang, but an abbreviation for convenience, there is no need to capitalize the plural, "corys."

Anyway, these are the "rules" I go by when I use the term corys.


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[keithkyli]

Actually "cories" is the latest step of a series of simplifications and localizations.

The most grammatically and scientifically correct way to say it should be "Corydoras catfishes".

Corydoras catfishes ->
corydoras as a common word ->
cory as a common word ->
corys as a simple plural form ->
cories when people take "cory" as a genuine English word, which it actually isn't.

In the name Corydoras, "cory" comes from Greek kory which means "helmet". By saying "corys" or "cories" we're essentially saying "helmets". "I have four helmets in my tank" would sound like military talk.

I use "corys" but I don't care how other people spell it, because it is not genuine English after all. Well, "guppy" has become a common word and few would question the authenticity of "guppies". However, Guppy was a person's name. Or something like "I googled it".

Think about it, the scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens, and Homo for the humanoid genus. How would you react if we don't have a common word "human" but have to resort to the scientific name.

"The king and the queen are powerful homos."
"There are 1.3 billion homos in China."

"I am a homo, you are a homo, we are all homos."
"Shouldn't it be homoes?"
"No, I'll simplify it to hos. We're all hos."
"Yeah! Power to the hos!"

Just a little grammar joke.
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Diamond Hill, Hong Kong

[diademhill]

[UncleWillie]

Haha. I really did laugh out loud at your post, keithkyli.

'Catfishes' is correct of you are talking about multiple species. If you are talking about several individuals of one species, then 'catfish' is correct.
"The catfishes are some of my favorite critters," and "I love my 2 yellow bullheads. Those catfish do great in a tank" are proper usages.

The usage of fish vs. fishes has kind of been lost and forgotten. For example, if you are a fishermen, you say: "I went down to the pond, and caught a bunch of fish!" Usually fishermen target one species, and so the usage is correct. However, when several types of fish were caught, no one returned home saying: "I went down to the pond and caught a bunch of fishes!"

I think we should all just call them fishies anyway, and save a lot of trouble. Hehe