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When using zero as a quantifier, is it correct to use the singular form on the object of the quantifier, or the plural form?

It sounds confusing when I put it that way, but what I mean is: Which is correct?

  • Your password expires in 0 days.
  • Your password expires in 0 day.

Essentially I suppose I'm asking, does "singular" mean "one" or "the opposite of more than one", as zero is not "plural" in the traditional "more than one" sense?

I'm pretty sure "days" sounds correct, but I can't be sure.

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Definitely 'days'. General rule of thumb, I'd say, is that if you're using 1 or -1, it's singular; else it's plural. – Jez Feb 17 '11 at 20:38
Yes, we have no bananas. – Brian Hooper Feb 17 '11 at 20:45
@Jez -- I think I'd usually pluralise with any number other than 1, including -1. – Neil Coffey Feb 17 '11 at 21:22
2  
Answered by a linguist here, and by another linguist here. – RegDwighт♦ Jun 25 '12 at 21:02
What about 1.0 ton / tons? 1.0 may or may not be equivalent to (exactly equal to in mathsspeak) 1 (it may be a rounded figure). – Edwin Ashworth Jan 14 at 15:50

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

In English, every number that is not 1 is considered plural. The correct sentence is the first you wrote.

Your password expires in 0 days.

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up vote 2 down vote

For your specific example, since you're doing processing to check for != 1 day, I'd recommend spending the few extra lines of code to produce "Your password expires today", "Your password expires tomorrow", or "your password expires in X days".

In the general case, 0 does count (rather non-intuitively) as a plural number.

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