A Lot of Animals Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sheep

Sheep is an odd word - it does not change however many sheep there are. So if you are trying to go to sleep and start counting sheep, it is one sheep, two sheep, three sheep, and so on. Even if you get to a really big number like 3,249,765, it is still three million, two hundred and forty nine thousand, seven hundred and sixty five sheep.

Deer is another animal which does not change when there are more than one. Slightly strangely, although it is correct to talk about Santa Claus's nine reindeer, it is also right to say that he has nine reindeers.

Answer: Geese

The plural of goose is odd. The second and third letters are both 'o' and they are both changed to 'e', making geese. The collection of geese are only a gaggle while they remain on the ground. When they take to the air, they are described as a skein.

Do not be confused if you meet a mongoose. It is no relation to a goose; it is not a bird but a small mammal, similar in appearance to a meerkat. The plural of mongoose is mongooses.

Answer: Mice

For mouse, the word ending changes quite a lot to get more than one. It is one mouse, two mice. In the rhyme, 'Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock', it was just one mouse. When the farmer's wife appeared in a different rhyme, it was 'Three blind mice' who ran after her.

The small insect, a louse, has an identical way of forming the plural. More than one louse is several lice.

Answer: Ostriches

The spelling of the plural of ostrich reflects the way that the word would be said even if just an 's' had been added to the end.

Other creatures which have 'es' added to the end to make the plural are a platypus, a fox, and an octopus, making platypuses, foxes, and octopuses. Goldfish is another odd word; we can talk about two goldfish, or two goldfishes.

Answer: Yes

Flamingos is a correct way to write about more than one flamingo. But it is acceptable to write flamingoes, with an 'e' inserted, too.

Some other creatures which can take either spelling in the plural are an armadillo, a dingo, and a gecko. Buffalo, which looks similar is slightly different; it is similar to reindeer, and can either stay the same in the plural, or it needs both the 'e' and the 's' to make buffaloes.

Answer: Wallabies

Many words ending with the letter 'y' change at the end when they become plural. The 'y' changes to an 'i', before 'es' is added, so they finish with the letters 'ies'. Wallaby is one of those words.

A butterfly is another; more than one are butterflies. The dromedary, a type of camel, also changes to become several dromedaries. It can take more than one husky to pull a sled, and they are huskies.

Answer: Monkeys

Despite the fact that it ends with a 'y', monkey is one of the words which just has an 's' added to the end to make the plural. If the word ends with the two letters 'ey', it does not need to change to include an 'i'.

Other creatures like that are a donkey, with several donkeys, and turkey, with more turkeys.

Answer: Oxen

You might expect the plural of ox to be like the plural of fox, but it is not. The plural of ox is oxen. Oxen are any cattle which have been bred and trained to work; they almost always work in pairs with a yoke joining the two, and attached to what they are pulling behind them.

I think adding 'en' to make the plural of ox is unique among animals, but you have probably heard something similar elsewhere. The plural of child is children!

Answer: Wolves

Many English words ending in 'f' change the 'f' to a 'v' before adding 'es' to make the plural form. Wolf is one of those words, so we have one wolf, and several wolves.

The picture at the start of the quiz showed several elephants. Some were adult elephants, and some were younger. A young elephant is called a calf, so there were also some calves in the picture, since that word works in the same way.

Answer: Kiwis

The kiwi is a flightless bird which lives in New Zealand. It is very easy to write about several of them, because we just need to add an 's' to the end to make kiwis.

Most words ending in 'i' which are used in English have come from other languages, and they are usually pluralised by simply adding an 's' to the end. Kiwi is no exception to that; the word comes from the Maori, who were the earliest inhabitants of the islands of New Zealand.