Why is ‘houses’ the plural of ‘house’, while the plural for ‘mouse’ is ‘mice’?

Question

Why is ‘houses’ the plural of ‘house’, while the plural for ‘mouse’ is ‘mice’?

In: 1039

Answer 1

Some words are borrowed from other languages or earlier versions of English that had different rules for pluralization. So “mouse-mice,” “foot-feet,” “goose-geese,” all came from some different pluralization system. Interestingly, when the same word is re-introduced into the language, such as a computer mouse, it tends to follow the normal pluralization rule, which is why it’s not uncommon to see or hear “mouses” when referring to the devices.