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

"I'm going to drink 10 beers"


"I just drankted 5+5 beers and you're a poopy face b*tch ... I eat pho ..................barf"

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

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.

Hmmm, could be, although Mr. Luken seems to suggest that the Southern Gentlemen of his region tend not to use the plural form of beer.

What would happen if you substituted "water" or "tea" for beer? Would you say "I saw 10 waters?" "I saw 10 teas?" You'd think for a liquid you'd always mention the container, but these days it's not unusual to hear people say "I had three coffees for breakfast" or "I had two scotch and sodas for lunch." What a wild and wacky language this English is.

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

Beer = the product

Beers= the quantitative number of above said product


It took me a few beers to come up with that.

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

Allow me to throw a wrench into the equation...I have two beers in my beer. There, I divided by zero.

bandyt09

Stubble:

Allow me to throw a wrench into the equation...I have two beers in my beer. There, I divided by zero.

Nice. I love me some Black-n-Tan................

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:

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?

Careful, gentlemen...we don't want to edge to another Civil War, do we? Although, in this particular linguistic scenario, I'd prefer the South to win....

Bob Luken

raisindot:

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?

Careful, gentlemen...we don't want to edge to another Civil War, do we? Although, in this particular linguistic scenario, I'd prefer the South to win....

Not to worry. Beer will keep us together. In fact I'm working on a new song. "Beer will keep us together" sung to the tune of "Love will keep us together" by Captain and Toenail.

Beer, or beers will keep us together
Either way man, whatever
Some yankee talking guy comes along, "beers" isn't wrong
Don't mess around,
Don't tell him he's wrong
Just drink, 'cause I really love beer
Drink, I'll do the spelling 'round here
Drink all you want and let beer/beers keep us together

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

Seems like it depends on your focus. If you're referring to the liquid in the glass or can or bottle, you're talking about beer (singular), because a liquid can't be plural. But if you're referring to the whole package - beverage, glass/can/bottle - as a whole, and you've got more than one, then you're talking about beers. It's a conjunction. Too clumsy to always say, I'm gonna have some glasses of beer. So we shorten it and pluralize the focus... I'm gonna have some beers.

No, really... I'm gonna have some beers. :^)

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

Puff_Dougie:

Seems like it depends on your focus. If you're referring to the liquid in the glass or can or bottle, you're talking about beer (singular), because a liquid can't be plural. But if you're referring to the whole package - beverage, glass/can/bottle - as a whole, and you've got more than one, then you're talking about beers. It's a conjunction. Too clumsy to always say, I'm gonna have some glasses of beer. So we shorten it and pluralize the focus... I'm gonna have some beers.

No, really... I'm gonna have some beers. :^)

Well, there's nothing clumsy about not using the term beers unless it is made to sound clumsy. "I'm gonna have some glasses of beer." Of course that sounds dumb. I'd more likely say, "I'm gonna have some beer." It's implied that I might have more than one. Otherwise I would have said "a beer". And it's not like I've NEVER said "beers" before. It's just that it sounds a little foreign to me. It's not what I grew up hearing. Maybe it all boils down to the grammar thing. I think if you really looked into it, Beers is grammatically incorrect. Isn't it? Just like deers cannot be the plural of deer. It's not that big of a deal either but, it's fun to argue about it. Better than arguing over politics.

raisindot

Bob Luken:

Maybe it all boils down to the grammar thing. I think if you really looked into it, Beers is grammatically incorrect. Isn't it? Just like deers cannot be the plural of deer. It's not that big of a deal either but, it's fun to argue about it. Better than arguing over politics.

When you really think about it, WHY is there no plural for deer (or moose?). Just about every animal can be plural, either by adding an 's' or using a different pluralized term ("mice" for "mouse," "geese" for "goose" and so on).

jgibv

After much time researching (aka drinking beers), I have found the answer for you, Bob.

The plural of beer is beer.
It's a volume noun like water and wine, so the statement, "I'll have a beer" implies that the speaker wants a glass, or a bottle, of beer.
Statements such as "I had six beers last night" imply that the speaker had either six portions of beer or six different types of beer.

SOURCE CLICKY CLICK HERE

jimmyv723

Bob Luken

jimmyv723:

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

Bob Luken

jgibv:

After much time researching (aka drinking beers), I have found the answer for you, Bob.

The plural of beer is beer.
It's a volume noun like water and wine, so the statement, "I'll have a beer" implies that the speaker wants a glass, or a bottle, of beer.
Statements such as "I had six beers last night" imply that the speaker had either six portions of beer or six different types of beer.

SOURCE CLICKY CLICK HERE

Thanks for posting this insightful post from another poster on another forum, I think it makes a lot of sense, but you left off the last part. And, the last part clears up the context of the quote a little bit. Here's the rest of what the poster had to say. ["Being specific with statements such as, "I had six bottles of beer last night" will eliminate confusion and avoid misunderstanding."] He's saying that beers is slightly more ambiguous than bottles of beer. So my view, according to that guy, is slightly correct. So, technically speaking, beer is the plural of beer. OK. Basically, my plan is, and always was, to avoid saying "beers" and it's not hard or awkward to do at all. The only way it sounds awkward is when y'all put awkward words in my mouth and say, "See? that sounds awkward." Beers is fine by me if you wanna' say it that way but any phrase you say with "beers" in it, I can easily say without. Easy. Try me. It'll be fun.

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