Is beers a yankee term?

Bob Luken

I grew up NOT hearing folks refer to multiple portions of beer as beers. Instead, I heard folks say "I drank three cans or bottles or glasses/mugs OF beer". Tennessee is where I grew up. Is "beers" a yankee thing? Beer is, grammatically speaking, like deer, right? You ain't "supposed to" say deers. I had never heard people say beers until I heard some guys from up north saying it.

roland_7707

Imo, you domt say deers. So it would be beer.

jgibv

dunno, but i was drinkin' beers out in the woods a couple weeks back and saw a big ol' herd of deers walk by....

Andrew Dzikoski

I think both are correct given the usage. You can say " I had 10 beers last night" Or "I had 10 cans of beer last night"

danielzreyes

Bob Luken

I changed the subject line of my original post to better ask the question I really meant to ask. Is it a regional thing? Do people say it differently in different parts of the country? Beers may sound right to you but it kinda' sounds foreign to me. And, I bet I actually have said "beers" at some point in my life but I was probably just slurring my words because of too many,..............drinks.

rsherman24

I usually say beer, but that is when I tell the wife I am going to stop for a Beer after work. Saying 10 beers just would not sound correct.

raisindot

It may be more of a Mason/Dixon line division. I certainly hear "beers" used all the time up here in The Blizzard State (i.e., "Last night I drank ten beehs and got wicked pissed"), but I've also heard "beers" used by natives in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Ken Light

raisindot:

It may be more of a Mason/Dixon line division. I certainly hear "beers" used all the time up here in The Blizzard State (i.e., "Last night I drank ten beehs and got wicked pissed"), but I've also heard "beers" used by natives in Wisconsin and Illinois.

I think it could be more generational than regional? The deer comparison is somewhat imperfect either way; you'd say "I saw 10 deer" but you'd never say "I saw 10 beer." You'd say beerS or CANS OF beer.

raisindot

CharlieHeis

I never used to hear 'beers' at all when I was younger. Not sure when this changed, but I do remember thinking it sounded a little off. I hear it said both ways now and I don't even notice the difference anymore. If a friend calls/texts me about drinking beer(s) I respond "Yes!" without paying attention to which form was used.

Bob Luken

Can anyone think of a country song (usually produced in Nashville) were they sang about drinkin' beers (with an s)? I can't think of any at the moment. The song by Blake Shelton "The Boys 'Round Here"" drinkin' that ice cold beer" comes to mind. Certainly he doesn't mean theyre limiting themselves to only one beer. Then there's the old Paul (yankee boy) Simon "Still crazy after all these years" "we talked about the old times and we drank ourselves some beers." Obviously they drank more than one but, maybe it is a regional thing. Any of you southerners gonna weigh in on this?

Gray4lines

I've always heard "beers." Grew up in WV and in KY now. I don't like country music, but the google told me that Toby Keith has a song called "Beers Ago" lol!

bandyt09

bigharpoon

Geeze, guy, 'course it's BEERS up here! You ain't gonna drink ONE beer are ya? I mean, who drinks ONE beer? You ain't gonna pass out in tha puckerbrush at that rate, I'll tell ya. You need to drink some BEERS for that!

Stubble

bandyt09

Bob Luken

bigharpoon:

Geeze, guy, 'course it's BEERS up here! You ain't gonna drink ONE beer are ya? I mean, who drinks ONE beer? You ain't gonna pass out in tha puckerbrush at that rate, I'll tell ya. You need to drink some BEERS for that!

OK, come on down to Nashville sometime and have a beer with me. And then we'll drink more beer. We can eventually drink lots of beer. But, if you want to keep track, you can keep track of the cans bottles or mugs OF beer but don't count the beer. OK?

raisindot

Bob Luken

Edna20

Hmm, I grew up in Upstate NY. I definitely say beers. But you wouldn't say, "Hey Bob, let's go out and grab a few beer tonight". Right?

Puff_Dougie

Bob Luken

Edna20:

Hmm, I grew up in Upstate NY. I definitely say beers. But you wouldn't say, "Hey Bob, let's go out and grab a few beer tonight". Right?

you're right. The words beers and beer are not interchangeable. I'd just say "let's grab some beer" but if I wanted to count I'd count the bottles OF beer.

Bob Luken

raisindot

jgibv

jimmyv723

Bob Luken

jimmyv723:

Hahaha! I been thinkin' of this skit the WHOLE time!

Bob Luken

Edna20

I can't do it. But I would say 'all of the beers in the garage are frozen'. That would sound perfectly normal to me. But you would say 'all of the bottles of beer in the garage are frozen'. Upstate New Yorkers may just be lazy! But then most would say elementary like elementry, and I say it like it has 5 syllables. So maybe we're not lazy.

Bob Luken

Edna20:

I can't do it. But I would say 'all of the beers in the garage are frozen'. That would sound perfectly normal to me. But you would say 'all of the bottles of beer in the garage are frozen'. Upstate New Yorkers may just be lazy! But then most would say elementary like elementry, and I say it like it has 5 syllables. So maybe we're not lazy.

No. I'd say "All of the beer in the garage is frozen." I would not specify the containers unless there were a need to. The listener may, or may not, already know what containers the beer is in. And, if they wanna know, they'll ask. If I need to tell them I will. Your way (beers) does not specify the containers either. So, my statement is the same meaning as yours. Same number of syllables too