What’s the plural of beer?
Is it two beer or two beers? This is one of those peculiar rules of English grammar: similar to fish and fishes, beer vs beers depends on the context in which these two plural forms are used. For the most part, the correct plural form of beer is simply beer. As a rule of thumb, best to stick to beer (sans -s.)
Mass nouns/noncount nouns
Like fishes, beers is accepted when referring to more than one kind or category of beer. At times where it’s uncertain whether the beer comes in pints, jugs, kegs, half-pints, casks and so on and so forth, beers is an acceptable plural since it refers to more than one kind or variety of beer. This sounds complicated, but it’s not completely off base. The logic has to do with something called mass nouns, or noncount nouns in English.
Beer is one of these so-called mass nouns, which simply refer to nouns that are considered un-countable—think of elements like air, water, and fire. Also, things that are so plentiful or numerous, it’s rare they’re referred to in the singular. Examples here are commonplace items: rice, sand, or snow are all things that exist in masses, or quantities that would be near impossible to literally count precisely. Noncount nouns do not have a plural form because they’re referenced as a mass group, so, they remain singular. Therefore, as a mass noun (which beer is when mentioning it in the abstract,) stays singular, i.e., beer, because it is classified as a noncount noun in English.
What’s the singular of beer?
This one’s easy: the singular of beer is just beer. As in, ‘Hey man, can you toss me a beer from the fridge?’
What is beer?
Beer is an alcoholic beverage that’s mostly made from different types of grain, such as barley. Beer comes in a large variety and kinds, such as ambers, lagers, pilsners, stouts and so on.
Irregular plural nouns that stay the same singular or plural
Beer is irregular as a plural noun in English since it doesn’t end in -s/-es, which is the suffix that regular plural noun forms take. Beer are not the only irregular English plural noun that remain the same in both singular and plural forms: deer, moose, shrimp, and some other nouns all stay the same in both their singular and plural noun forms. While this sounds counterintuitive, and possibly discombobulating, in most cases, it’s pretty straightforward to tell whether what’s mentioned is plural or singular.
Nouns with one form. By Gflex on Canva.
Examples of beer/beers used in application
1. Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed alcoholic drink in the world.
2. While there are many types of beer brewed, the basics of brewing beer are shared across national and cultural boundaries.
3. Wheat beer is brewed with a large proportion of wheat although it often also contains a significant proportion of malted barley.
4. Pale lagers are the most commonly consumed beers in the world.
5. Beer forms part of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawling, pub quizzes and pub games.
Origin of the word beer
According to etymonline, beer comes from:
Middle English ber, from Old English beor “strong drink, beer, mead,” cognate with Old Frisian biar, Middle Dutch and Dutch bier, Old High German bior, German Bier.
Synonyms for beer
- ale
- brew
- chill
- hops
- lager
- malt
- oil
- stout
- brewski
- suds
- barley pop
- amber brew
Worksheet
What’s the difference between they’re, their, and there?
Sources
- Mass nouns
- Wikipedia, beer
- Synonyms of beer
- Origin of beer
