collective nouns are terrific but raise questions.

why do some seem to be obviously female ( a gaggle of geese or a huddle of penguins) while others must be male ( an army of frogs or a cloud of gnats.)

And who makes 'em up.

Why are 'gaggle' and 'huddle' female terms, I spy?

And 'army' and 'cloud' - male, I-spy?

A flange of Baboons.

Can't make my mind up about that one.

I think there's some French thinking going on.

Over to Mache.

A wad of tenners is definately female

'Who makes 'em up?'

A gaggle of geese is made up of ... geese, and so on, I-spy.

Cos they are

Flange of gorillas, Kryten.

Urban myth started by Not The Nine O Clock News.

A crash of.............?

Rhino's (bowt googlin)

Na! windows

SOD OFF!

I was feeling quite chuffed with myself too. Despite the iffy apostrophe.

Troop" is the commonly used word, but you can also use tribe, flange, or congress. Wiki.

Wiki is wrong.

'Flange' was used in the Gerald The Gorilla' sketch and stuck.

Gender in English:

'A system of grammatical gender, whereby every noun was treated as either masculine, feminine or neuter, existed in Old English, but fell out of use during the Middle English period.

Modern English retains features relating to natural gender, namely the use of certain nouns and pronouns to refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other sex.

Some aspects of this usage have been influenced by the movement towards a preference for gender-neutral language.

With the exceptions of the traditional, optional uses of she and her pronouns for ships (and analogous machinery) and for nation states (e.g. "Britain and her allies"), all other gender-related grammatical differences have vanished.'

I shall bow to your superior knowledge Mr D and not look upon it as a group of Ravens.

The Titanic was refered to as she, however she was a royal mail ship

Kryten, I nearly quoted Paul Calfe and called it a 'bag o' s..........'

But I hear diesels a lurking.

In fact 'a convoy' of diesels.


See what I did there?

Please yourselves.

Now I get it, Mache.

?

I struggled a bit, pre edit.

See, now you're blushing like that submarine.

The one that saw Queen Mary's bottom.

I'll get me coat.

Another male ship

And an owd joke told by Private Pike.

Look what google sent me

(Funnely enough, I read the Queen Mary joke in a book by Michael Morpurgo yesterday. He was describing his train journey back to boarding school in 1953 - 'it was all the old jokes: "Why did the submarine blush?" "Because it saw Queen Mary's bottom!" "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "For some fowl reason!" And the carriage rocked with raucous laughter." )

"Who decides on the right collective noun for something?

The short answer is no one. While some languages, such as Spanish, French, and German, are ruled by committee there is no academy or governing body that decides on how English should evolve ... some strike a colourful chord but have never quite caught on, including a fall of woodcocks and a shrewdness of apes."

Wiganworlders have had a go at making some up.

Flange is applicable to collections of primates; baboons or gibbons, but not officially gorillas.

What do you call a collection of flanges?

A monkey house of flanges

I like fanfare of strumpets - it could be a description of the Mature Ladies website Christmas do.

A rude of blokes.

i bet you don't know what a group of Crows are without Googling/

An old chestnut.

I had to google, MarieM - Fun With Words - Collective Nouns.

As to a rude of blokes - I've rued (stereo)typing that - it was rude of me.

It's a 'rudeness' Joanne.

A scum of chavs.

Collective Nuns - Male and Female

Un monton de mierda

Nay John...if tha cawnt speyk reet then shurrup.....

try a collection of Goldfinches, no looking !!!

how charming is that. no one knows it is a 'Charm'

Thanks, Orrellite - Charm wasn't a collective noun I knew until now.

'A charm of goldfinches' - take a bough.