I have a Danish friend (I've only met him online and through email) who in most regards is more fluent in idiomatic English of various sorts than most of my American friends. He has written a fantasy novel (in both Danish and English), which I am in the process of reading in English. I won't go into the stylistic oddities that make the reading difficult (though I'm enjoying it); but I'm astonished that he has used deers as the plural of deer. I have rather assumed that deer as the plural form was universal in English, at least as a first language. Is my assumption wrong?
Peter
I don't know of any native English speaker who uses deers in any formal context, but I certainly have heard it informally. When used with an s plural it evokes a certain individuality or personality that is lacking with the more collective plural in singular form. For example, I would not be shocked to see, even in fairly formal writing, the following:
Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donner, Prancer, Rudolph, and Vixen are very famous reindeers.
I have noted another unusual singular form that trips up nonnative speakers of English. When it is wrong, it is jarring to native speakers. These are the infinite variety of (plural number)+(singular unit) attributive adjectives:
A two-hour meeting …
The three-month delay …
Any five-quart container …
Some six-foot board …
Her hundred-meter dash …
His twelve-year-old daughter …
Even the most accomplished nonnatives almost always say:
A *two-hours meeting …
The *three-months delay …
Any *five-quarts container …
Some *six-feet board …
Her *hundred-meters dash …
His *twelve-years-old daughter …
[edit: added the following]
Both Mer.-Web. and Collins list both deer and deers as plural forms:
M-W deers
Collins deers
I submit the Godfather "sleeps with the fishes" as another non-native issue with singular plurals.
Emmett
"Moose, elk, white-tail, and other deers…" seems almost reasonable to my ear ("perch, bass, and other lake fishes"); but "The two deers flew across the road and disappeared into the bushes" just sounds strange.