[Vocabulary] why do we use "bribes" as noun and "bribe" as verb?

[Aamir Tariq]

He was caught taking bribes.
The young lady bribed the police officer to let her go.

Why do we use plural "bribes" when we use it as a noun. and simply bribe when we use it as a verb, what is the logic behind it?

Regards,
Aamir the Global Citizen

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: why doi we use "bribes" as noun and "bribe" as verb?

We use plural nouns when we talk about plural things. And we conjugate verbs according to the normal rules.

Someone can certainly be caught "taking a bribe," but usually someone who engages in that kind of behavior does it more than once. And police would try to implicate a person more than once, to build a stronger case. So taking "bribes" is more normal.

 

[Tdol]

Re: why doi we use "bribes" as noun and "bribe" as verb?

In this example, it's a single bribe, so the singular noun would be used.

 

[Raymott]

The young lady bribed the police officer to let her go.

Your example uses "bribed", which makes a nonsense of your title. We conjugate the verb 'bribe' and modify the base noun 'bribe' for number.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Why do we use plural "bribes" when we use it as a noun. and simply bribe when we use it as a verb, what is the logic behind it?

Regards,
Aamir the Global Citizen

Bribe is both a noun and a verb.

One bribe/many bribes: a regular example of singular/plural.

Bribe/bribes/bribed/had bribed/is bribing: that's as simple as English verbs get.

It can also be an adjective: She had plenty of bribe money for the guards.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

'Bribe' is a noun functioning as a modifier in that sentence. It cannot be an adjective; we cannot modify the word with 'very', and there are no 'briber' or 'bribest' forms.

Thanks. That's an interesting distinction, and those are great litmus tests. I'll use them!