Posted By:
J LevineI am a first grade teacher (as some of you know) and even I had to look this up just to be sure...
The simplest way to figure it out is this...
One dolphin, two dolphins
One marlin, two marlins
They are correct in using a plural "s"
There are some cases where it does not make sense...like one fish, two fish (there really should be no word as "fishes" even though it gets used)...
When you talk about using the groupings you are talking about a different grammatical form...
One school of marlin, two schools of marlin (not two school of marlins)
One herd of cow, two herds of cow is proper...it really is not proper to say two herd of cows or two herds of cows (actually there really should not be a word "cows" as the true plural of cow is cattle)
People wonder why english is such a hard language and the amazing ways in which it is butchered on a daily basis...and then try teaching spelling and grammar rules to six year olds and you have my daily life...