I keep hearing people on various documentary shows refer to more than 1 flying machine as aircrafts.Where did this come from,aircrafts is not a word.Aircraft is plural and singular.
That sounds about normal for the “experts” they regularly have on documentaries like that. I have a really hard time watching those shows all the way through, since they’re so full of errors.
I haven’t heard that word yet, been lucky I guess.
In all the squadrons I have been in or had around me, aircraft was the word used regardless of how many ship were involved, from one to an entire wing. Almost nobody used the word airplane either although “ship/ships” was common;y used also. I have no idea where that started.
Both are entirely acceptable. It could be a difference between the Queen’s English, or " American".
Bill
Indeed there are differences in English. My previous CEO was from the UK.
Microsoft is a big company.
my CEO
Microsoft are a big company.
Just a guess, from the airship/ derrigible.era. They “floated” in the air. No one could see any wings tonight support their flight.
In my Navy squadron we referred our Seastallions as birds.
Hello!
But those Seastallions definitely were no “choppers”, right?
Have a nice day
Paweł
Exactly,the RH-53D had 6 blades generating 100,000 v static electricity,40 crew and passengers.my welcome package to HM-14 said it is the biggest,baddest,meanist helicopter in the free world.I enjoyed crewing them alot.
There are people who say ‘aircrafts,’ just as there are people who will say ‘sheeps’ and ‘fishes.’ Beyond a certain point, as long as you know what they mean, what does it matter?
The really sad part is that these days even ‘professionals’ in the ‘communications’ industry can’t get grammar, syntax or pronunciation right much of the time…and apparently there are no better-informed higher ups to instruct them otherwise…so much of the public has no ‘standard’ to go by.
[End of ‘old guy’ rant. Now where’s my juice box…? [proplr]]
An aircraft is any flying machine- airship/blimp/dirigible, balloon, glider, airplane, helicopter and I believe even kite (there were early man-carrying kites flown from warships). There were national organizations (I think they still exist) about aircraft that kind of agreed on nomenclature.
Really?
You should see the words that pop up on my closed captioned T.V. I always thought that to type or program a computer to generate the words in an electronic medium, you had to know how to spell even basic words. Guess I was wrong.
Because I traveled so much when I was younger( Employment) I use Both, the ( British?) spelling of words and American English. Sometimes an Australian phrase or word will sneak in there as well. I actually cannot read half of what C.C. says on the Telly. So now I am learning to Lip Read!
No, Folks, I was Not born here. I was a Furriner till I enlisted, then they told me that through my childhood, Because I was adopted at Ellis Island, I wasn’t a citizen! Until I got sworn in with the Oath of Citizinship and the Naval Swear in!
Doesn’t matter-I grew up speaking English, Sicilian and Austro -German. Had to forget those last two by Grandpa’s order. We’re in America Now. One important thing, We learned how to spell correctly!
My biggest peeve is a certain group of folks of all color, can’t seem to get it right. It’s ASK, not AKS !
The root word itself, “craft” is singular and plural, when it refers to a conveyance: seacraft, watercraft, space craft. When it’s used in the meaning of a skill, then it has a normal plural, as in “arts & crafts”.
The problem is that successive classes of kids have been taught, increasingly, that these things don’t matter. And more increasingly, they’re being taught that good grammar is oppression.
Language changes, though. That doesn’t make it lazy or sloppy. Language serves us, not we language. Another example, when referring to those little gaming cubes - it used to be one die, two or more dice. Now, dice is considered acceptable regardless of the number…one dice, two dice…
True, but nobody intermixing those is a paid “expert” on a documentary about dice. [H]
I will usually watch these shows while drinking a bunch of beers. [:D]
Slightly off-topic, but grammar is something that has all sorts of class distinctions attached to it, which really doesn’t make a lot of sense.
For instance, “won’t” is perfectly acceptable, “ain’t” is equated by many with tractor caps and missing teeth.
1 hippopotamus
2 hippopotomi???
What is the plural of moose? [bnghead]
“There’s one moose…and there’s another moose.”