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Fallow deer have different antlers from red deers.

I am struggling to find a better way to form this sentence. I cannot tell if it is correct or sounds natural to a native speaker.

A small reordering of the elements in the phrase seems to help:

Fallow deer have antlers different from red deers.

Yet, I am still in the dark as to whether the first option is acceptable.

I guess I may be struggling with this sentence because deer is the non-genitive plural, deers the genitive plural and I want to convey that the antlers are different, not that the fallow deer antlers are different from the animal that is the red deer.

I would appreciate your input on the sentences proposed above and ask what an informal way to convey the same meaning would be.

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    The plural is nearly always deer, not deers. Unless you've previously been talking about red deer antlers, and now wish to introduce fallow deer (or more specifically, their antlers), there's no good reason to make only one species the grammatical subject. Just say The antlers of fallow deer and red deer are different. Which has the additional benefit of saving you agonizing over whether to go for different from or different to (whichever preposition you choose, at least some people will think you should have used the other! :) Commented Jan 15, 2025 at 12:10
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    If you're getting paid by the word, Fallow deer have antlers which are different to those of red deer. Commented Jan 15, 2025 at 12:13
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    …or Fallow deers’ antlers differ from red deers’. Commented Jan 15, 2025 at 12:51
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    I realize the plural is deer, I was attempting to form a plural possessive out of it. It has been helpful to get this pointed out that the correct form is deer's. Commented Jan 16, 2025 at 13:23

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I wouldn't use either of your two examples. Compound nouns like red deer antlers don't need the possessive form deer's. In fact, I find it weird. I don't think its necessarily wrong, but it's not idiomatic here in the UK at least. Note also that deer is both the singular and plural form, and deer's is both the singular and plural possessive form.

I would only use the possessive form if I was talking about specific antlers belonging to one or more specific deer: e.g. We removed the red deer's antlers.

Anyway, there are several possibilities (possibly more), as I see it:

Fallow deer antlers are different from red deer antlers.

Fallow deer antlers are different from [those of] red deer.

Fallow deer have different antlers from [those of] red deer.

Fallow deer have antlers [that are] different from [those of] red deer

Fallow deer antlers differ from [those of] red deer.

Fallow [deer antlers] and red deer antlers are different.

Fallow [deer] and red deer have different antlers.

Fallow [deer antlers] and red deer antlers differ.

Note: The words in square brackets can be elided in informal English, because they are obvious.

Personally, I'd go for the shortest ones.

Fallow and red deer antlers differ/are different

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First: I think by "genitive plural" you mean what I would often call "plural possessive," meaning "the antlers belonging to multiple deer." Here the apostrophe is important. Let's use a noun with a more standard plural form:

  • The dog's head: The head of a single dog
  • The dogs' heads: The heads of multiple dogs. The plural was formed, from "dog" to "dogs," by adding "s," and the possessive was formed simply by putting the apostrophe after the "s." This is just because convention has shied away from saying "dogs's," just as some style guides suggest making a plural out of proper nouns that end in "s" just by adding an apostrophe but no extra "s," like "Jesus' teachings."

"Deer" is unusual because the plural form is exactly like the singular: one deer, two deer. (Similar with "sheep," "moose," and some other words.) So the singular possessive and plural possessive would also be the same, "One deer's antlers, two deer's antlers."

All this is a bit unrelated to your underlying question about how to use "different" to compare direct objects.

  • We can use "different from" in the simplest cases of comparing nouns that are subjects: "Peanuts are different from potatoes."
  • When comparing objects, it's more idiomatic to use "than" instead of "from": "I like different foods than my sister does." (Note, a construction like "I like different foods from my sister" is something you might encounter often, but it isn't ideal and might be considered a casual mistake. After all, it seems to suggest that the sister is food!) Note the extra verb ("does") at the end. This could also have just repeated the first verb ("... than my sister likes"), or been omitted ("I like different foods than my sister"), but the omission can sometimes be awkward or confusing.
  • You tried to solve this by using a possessive. If we were to go that route, it might be best to make the first phrase a possessive as well so their parallel: "Fallow deer's antlers are different from red deer's. (And now we're back to "different from," because the antlers are back to being subjects.)
  • You could also reword any number of ways, including simply making a verb out of "differ": "Fallow deer's antlers differ from red deer's."
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    "different from" versus "different than" is a very complicated subject. There are some prescriptivist rules for when each is appropriate, but these are often ignored. merriam-webster.com/grammar/different-from-or-different-than Commented Jan 15, 2025 at 17:07
  • Thank you for your answer, I worded the question in a vague manner: I am specifically interested in using the plural possessive, I am aware of the other route. Commented Jan 16, 2025 at 13:25
  • In such case, which would be correct: Fallow deer have different antlers from red deer. or Fallow deer have different antlers from red deer's. If I substitute the nouns with personal pronouns, I'd say They have antlers different from ours and not They have antlers different from us and I am trying to apply this pattern to the aforementioned sentences. If there sre some additional grammar rules that I am missing, I'd appreciate a hint. Commented Jan 16, 2025 at 13:33
  • @Zmyśliwiec Personally, I simply wouldn't use this construction. As FumbleFingers hinted, there's debate around "different from/than/to," and I wouldn't condemn this construction as "wrong," but I think something with more parallelism between the halves is clearer and feels better. If we want possessives: "Their antlers are different from ours." If we want an object: "They have antlers that are different from those we have." Admittedly, there's not much difference between that and "They have antlers different from ours," but I like adding "that are" and expanding "ours." I would not use... Commented Jan 16, 2025 at 13:59
  • I would not use "...antlers different from us," as that compares antlers to deer. I suppose I would be so bold as to call that a mistake, though it's definitely a common usage that you can encounter. Commented Jan 16, 2025 at 14:01
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OP asked whether "deers" is the genitive case of deer in:

Fallow deer have antlers different from red deers.

Answer:.
Though we can say "men’s saloon," "red deers antlers" is ambiguous.

You can correct it with a slight modification:

  • Fallow deer have antlers that are different from those of red deer.

Another alternative:

  • Fallow deer have different antlers than red deer.
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