I'd been labouring under the misapprehension that to use the word 'fishes' marked you out as some sort of fucking idiot. But having checked up on it having seen the word at the aquarium in the Horniman Museum, I have learned that far from marking you out as an idiot, to use the word correctly makes you some sort of brain box.
Well I never.
Though often used interchangeably, these words actually mean different things. Fish is used either as singular noun or to describe a group of specimens from a single species. Fishes describes a group containing more than one species. Hence, as plurals, these words could be used thus:
* My aquarium contains three different fishes: guppies, platies, and swordtails.
* The North Atlantic stock of Gadus morhua is estimated to contain several million fish.
* My aquarium contains three different fishes: guppies, platies, and swordtails.
* The North Atlantic stock of Gadus morhua is estimated to contain several million fish.
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