Friday 29 June 2007

Interesting Collective Nouns

My entry today is a little different from the rest. Lets forget about the Melayus, about politics and about dirty jokes ( its hard though to forget about jokes ). I am a teacher so I am going to write something academic. Its about English. I was in the school library one day when I picked out this book: Brain Teasers in English by Renu Narula, Golden Books Centre Sdn Bhd 1996. If you have read the book I am sure you found it both interesting and helpful, at least I did. I would like to show some examples of Collective Nouns that we thought we knew it all. See if they match what you had in mind. Below are some interesting ones.

1. A shrewdness of apes
2. A cete of badgers
3. A sloth of bears
4. An army of caterpillars
5. A clowder of cats
6. A peep of chicken
7. A murder of crows
8. A dule of doves
9. A shulk of foxes
10. A husk of hares
11. A cast of hawks
12. A siege of herons
13. A harras of horses
14. A snock of jellyfish
15. A kindle of kittens
16. A deceit of lapwings
17.An exaltation of larks
18. A leap of leopards
19. A nest of machine-guns
20. A watch of nightingales
21. A parliament of owls
22. A covery of partridges
23. An ostentation of peacocks
24. A nest of rabbits
25. An unkindness of raven
26. A crash of rhinoceroses
27. A horde of savages
28. A pod of seals
29. A host of sparrows
30. A dray of squirrels
31. A murmuration of starlings
32. A mustering of stocks
33. A gang of thieves
34. A knot of toads
35. A rafter of turkeys
36. A pitying of turtledoves
37. A bale of turtles
38. A gam of whales
39. A route of wolves
40. A descent of woodpeckers

English being what it is today, I am sure there is no hard and fast rule to the use of collective nouns. Do you agree?

26 comments:

Mat Salo said...

What about CNs for blogger?

A dungful of...

A shitload of...

A lyingbaleful of...

A f#*kheap of...

A shitstirrer of...

A blurful of...

And these are just the nice ones..

(Me included of course..haha)

Unknown said...

MS,
Capital idea old chap, capital idea. What say you we initiate a competition for the most interesting and colourful CNs on bloggers. Anyone care to fill in the blanks or come out with CNs of their own?

Anonymous said...

2 thumbs up. a lesson well learnt. thank u, cikgu.

Unknown said...

Kerp,
Glad you find it useful and glad to be of service.

Anonymous said...

but with Mat Salo's CNs, I believe most students will be all ears..lol

Unknown said...

Kerp,
Yes, but he didn't fill in the blanks. Would you care to do it?

Anonymous said...

I'll take the first one. this may offend a turdload of people but here it goes anyway..

A dungful of- Tottenham hotspur football club!! its true. their style of play is just crap.

hahha..

Unknown said...

Okay here goes:
A shitload of low class thick skinned ministers.
A lyingbaleful of documents presented by Bush and Blair to kill thousands in Iraq.
A fucking heap of mistakes made by Samy Vellu...yet still a minister.
A shitstirrer of perfomances made by a shit stirrer....now exposed and defunct in blogsphere.
A blurful of doubts now clear as crystal.
PLUS.....
A bagful of nutty visitors to keep the blog owner happy and well.

Anonymous said...

monsterball said;
'A bagful of nutty visitors to keep the blog owner happy and well.'

ok mr goh, for once, I have to agree with u..hahaha..

tokasid said...

Salam che'gu;
Interesting CNs che'gu. I'm sure our dear Matsalo will have more of it,right MS?
Me zero knowledge of nouns or CNs, so me just sit and enjoy future CNs.

A shitload of...Tuans trying to figure out how to rob teh Malays.

Unknown said...

KTN...I must go out to but 4 digit....since very rare kerp agrees with me....hahahahaha

Unknown said...

Kerp,
I see you don't like Tottenhan Hotspurs. Well to me they are just so so only but Shebby Singh loves Spurs.

Monty,
I agree about our ministers being low-class. In fact I think all ministers must take a test first conducted by SIRIM.

Doc,
I think the TUANS that you mentioned shouldn't come under the shitload category, we should put them under the fuckheap category.

Unknown said...

hi katak tak nak..SIRIM is quality controlled for PRODUCTS lah...not human beings.
What all ministers need to go through is a class how to behave like Malaysians conducted by Sheih...how to love humans conducted by Susan and how to speak and write good English conducted by kata tak nak.
Finally all come to monsterball to learn how to fuck and get fucked up......hahahahahahaha

Unknown said...

Shebby maybe a small time bookie for Spur? What Sheeby say or love on football...becareful.....hahahahahaha

Unknown said...

Tonight...if my RM5 investement on 4 digit strike first price...I will be richer by RM15K....thanks to kerp.
If not....then he brings be no luck.....hahahahahaha

Unknown said...

Monty,
I hope you strike la. Once upon a time I also play numbers, I am not ashamed to admit it because I have stopped. The best I struck was 10K on 8118.

Unknown said...

Did not strike. Maybe should buy RM1..too greedy...not kerp's bad luck to me....hahahahaahaha

Unknown said...

A load of evidences can be seen from a single photo.
Worst than c4 explosives.

Anonymous said...

mr goh,
If it did strike, I would hv claimed frm u atleast a stick of fine montecristo!

cikgu,
Arsenal fans hated spurs wit all our guts man. any teams for the championships BUT those spurs scums.

Unknown said...

Monty,
Try again today.
Kerp. Yeah same as Man Utd hates Liverpool

Unknown said...

No problem kerp!
Will take your advise KTN...buy RM1 only...even strike anything...will buy kerp that stick of very expensive cigar. Problem is where to send it to him. I tell you what kerp.....since understandably most want to be secretive and reserved....I will smoke that montecristo and blow that beautiful aroma to the sky.... shouting your name with love.. How's that sound?

Unknown said...

A thankful lot of people here enjoying good health and clean fun.

Anonymous said...

monsterball said;
'shouting your name with love.. How's that sound?'

sounds a little gay but i'll accept it anyway. and since KTN is a good, dirty but fun weblog, here's a big, sincere 'V' sign to u, mr goh.

Unknown said...

Monty and Kerp,
I like the idea of fun. dirty a bit never mind la as long as not malicious. here's to all of us.

Unknown said...

No luck on 4 digit. Lucky RM1.
Back to smoking cheap cigars...but will keep my promise to blow few puffs to the sky for kerp to smell. It must be in his sleep...as morning too much interferences...so smell cannot be detected....but hope he does not fut in his sleep and say I send him shit smell.

IBU said...

I found 2 of those easiest to identify with:

1. An army of caterpillars - DARI KIRI !!!! CEPAT JALAN .... kiri kanan, kiri kanan, kiri kanan... caterpillars kan banyak kaki?

2. A parliament of owls - Sepatutnya yg bermesyuarat kat parliament tu made up of the WISE onessss.... not the waste ones...

hehehe ....

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