This tag applies to questions that deal with grammatical number; e.g. singular ("he"), plural ("they"), and in some cases, dual ("both of them"). These questions also might involve number agreement within a sentence; e.g. singular ("one car is driving") and plural ("two cars are driving"). See ...
2
votes
1answer
35 views
How does one parenthetically amend a noun in a sentence so that both the singular and plural form are included?
In a complex sentence with two subjects, each taking separate actions, the second subject is item (singular), which I want to amend to item(s) with a parenthetical s.
How do I direct the rest of the ...
5
votes
3answers
75 views
In 'large herds of elephant and buffalo', why elephant not elephants?
I found the following expression in dictionary.
large herds of elephant and buffalo
A herd must be more than one, why using singular not plural?
3
votes
0answers
68 views
Nouns of plural form preceding another noun
I was reading Computers, Communications, and Information A User's Introduction (Seventh Edition) by Sarah E. Hutchinson and Stacey C. Sawyer.
The authors consistently used such terms as ...
2
votes
3answers
287 views
Is it “5-6 weeks are a lot of time” or “5-6 weeks is a lot of time”?
I was just copyediting somebody's answer on another SE site and my native English speaker Sprachgefühl told me I had to correct the grammar of one sentence:
... 5-6 weeks are a lot of time ...
...
2
votes
1answer
37 views
“Years of experience that keeps us safe.” vs “Years of experience that keep us safe.”
If you've ever seen Mythbusters, you know that all episodes contain at least one safety disclaimer. Having recently rewatched several episodes, I've noticed that some disclaimers have Adam saying, ...
0
votes
3answers
102 views
When the plural ends in “-ies”, how do I know whether the singular ends in “-y” or “-ie”? [closed]
my question is how am I supposed to recognize a singular form of a noun which plural form ends with "ies"? As you can see "cookies" are a "cookie" when singular, but at the same time "flies" stand for ...
1
vote
3answers
80 views
Plural form of Abbreviation Ending in O [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct way to pluralize an acronym?
My company deals in Purchase Orders.
For years they have referred to multiple purchase orders as POs. It seems, the ...
4
votes
1answer
105 views
When and why do I have to use singular and plural nouns following “No”?
For example:
No student goes to school today.
No students go to school today.
When and why do I have to use singular and plural nouns following "No"?
0
votes
3answers
77 views
Is it correct to use the word 'etiquettes' for plural?
One of my friends argues with me that the plural for etiquette is etiquettes and for fish it is fishes. I was taught since ever that etiquette is plural as fish does. To support his statement he ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
Is “cattle herds” grammatical? [closed]
I know that "a herd of cattle" and "many herds of cattle" are correct, but what about "cattle herds"? For example,
We drove by cattle herds.
Is that grammatical?
1
vote
1answer
84 views
“The contents of the cereal box” — singular or plural? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
“The contents are” or “the contents is”
Which is correct?
The contents of the cereal box is distributed among the children.
The contents ...
0
votes
0answers
13 views
Using a plural word for a singular term [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Irregular plurality situations in English
Why do we use a plural word when we speak about a singular item? Such as
1 Sheep and a herd of sheep
1 deer and a herd of ...
1
vote
0answers
18 views
“Contact group” or “Contacts group”? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
“User accounts” or “users account?”
I'm writing software, and I need to create an object that will contain a group of contacts. Contacts can ...
3
votes
3answers
77 views
Plural and Singular Parallelism
Let's consider the following example taken from C# Pocket Reference by Joseph Albahari.
Statements in C# execute sequentially and are terminated by a semicolon.
Why is the semicolon in singular ...
2
votes
2answers
70 views
Term used for the number of items in a singular or plural noun or sentence
Can anyone confirm the name of the term used
for the number of items in the terms singular,
plural, etc.?
Does singular or plural indicate the cardinality
of a part of the sentence, or is there ...
3
votes
4answers
74 views
Consistency of “There is the same number of elements in… as there are in…”
I'm proofreading this in a friend's paper:
There is the same number of elements in the set of odd numbers as there are in the even numbers.
The same number is singular and it's the thing being ...
2
votes
3answers
142 views
Plural of “syntax” [closed]
What is the plural of syntax? Would it be syntacies? What rule would govern this kind of construction?
-3
votes
2answers
58 views
when an hyphen occur, what do we do with plural [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Pluralization rule for “five-year-old children”, “20 pound note”, “10 mile run”
When an hyphen occur, what do we do with plural?
...
0
votes
1answer
90 views
Plural of 'hereafter' [closed]
On Wiktionary we read that 'hereafter' has as plural 'hereafters', but OALD says that this plural form doesn't exist. Which is wrong: Wiktionary or OALD?
19
votes
5answers
1k views
What is the plural of “chewing gum”?
What's the plural of "chewing gum"?
Hearing "do you have any chewing gums?" sounds wrong; I would say "do you have any chewing gum?", but looking it up, there seems to be a bit of confusion on ...
-1
votes
2answers
79 views
Silly questions, like X is/are a complete waste of time?
I'm stumped with this one. Given the question, "What did you learn from doing this task?", which of the following answers is correct?
That silly questions, like "What did you learn from doing ...
-1
votes
2answers
85 views
Is 0.1 million singular or plural? [closed]
Is 0.1 million singular or plural?
Since 0.1 is smaller than 1, shouldn't it be singular?
E.g:
This: 0.1 million people is above the age of 65.
or: 0.1 million people are above the age of 65. ...
8
votes
3answers
192 views
Why are the words hundred, thousand, million, and trillion singular after plural numbers?
Can anyone give a grammatical explanation why the words hundred, thousand, million, and trillion are singular after plural numbers?
For example, why can't we say three hundreds or 4 thousands or ...
27
votes
9answers
2k views
“1 in 10 are” or “1 in 10 is”?
Take the examples:
"One in ten children are dyslexic."
"One in ten children is dyslexic."
"One in ten children has dyslexia."
"One in ten children have dyslexia."
The "one" is singular so 2 and 3 ...
14
votes
3answers
343 views
What are wrong with this phrase?
Is the phrase
what are wrong with XY and ZZ
correct English? I stumbled upon it in a question on movies.SE: What are wrong with the bleach and the fish in the Machinist?, and instantly thought ...
0
votes
0answers
84 views
Do vs Does? or Don't vs Doesn't? [closed]
I am a non-native English speaker, and one of the things that often trip me is the usage of do vs does(and don't vs doesn't) in speech and writing.
What are the grammar rules around the usage of ...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
What is the plural of “ostrich”?
I've noticed that it is often "ostriches" or "ostrich" according to different sources. Does it vary by the dialect of English?
Normally I'd use Google to determine something like this, but ...
3
votes
3answers
99 views
Is there a grammar mistake in “Ball Don't Lie”?
There is a novel titled 'Ball Don't Lie', and a film also based on the novel with the same name (visit: Wikipedia synopsis). Then the sentence becomes more famous in sports world after Rasheed Wallace ...
7
votes
13answers
630 views
Plural of “advice”
The dictionary says that advice can only be used in the singular. But in a specific part of computer science (aspect-oriented programming) this word is used to reference some object that implements ...
2
votes
1answer
113 views
One and a half minute/minutes [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Pluralization rule for “five-year-old children”, “20 pound note”, “10 mile run”
Should we use plural or singular for a fraction of a ...
1
vote
2answers
82 views
Possessive form of “one of [a list]”? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Plural possessive with separate posessions
Which of the following is more correct? Or is there another form I'm missing?
We drove to the movies in one of my buddy's ...
0
votes
3answers
98 views
Is “Mankind” used with “is” or “are.”
I saw an old quote saying "My friends are mankind." Is this correct? The word "are" is generally used with multiple objects, so it works properly with friends - ie, "My friends are great" is ...
0
votes
0answers
22 views
Plural of abbreviations with -s or -'s? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct way to pluralize an acronym?
Should the plural of abbreviations be with a -s at the end or with -'s?
E.g.: in my work MC is a typical abbreviation ...
0
votes
2answers
99 views
Plural form of “someone”'?
someone
Used for referring to a person when you do not know or do not say who the person is.
So in the sentence:
I will need someone from different continents who can help me to spread ...
2
votes
2answers
132 views
When there are several appendices, what is that part of a book called?
If a book has one appendix, it is The Appendix. Now consider a book with three appendices (or, if you like, appendixes), named Appendix A, Appendix B, and Appendix C. The part of the book, which is ...
4
votes
3answers
99 views
Origin and usage of “a shambles”
"Shambles" is one of the few singular nouns in English that blatantly resembles a plural noun. What is the origin of "a shambles"? Why do we really need to prefix an "a" in front of "shambles"? Which ...
0
votes
1answer
99 views
0
votes
0answers
14 views
grammatical-number [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
“A lot of ideas” is or are?
Let us say I am describing a photograph or painting.
In the background is a lot of trees.
In the background are a lot of trees.
...
1
vote
0answers
28 views
How should I pluralize letters? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the proper way to write the plural of a single letter? (another apostrophe question)
Sometimes, it becomes necessary to refer to, for instance, the instances of ...
1
vote
0answers
15 views
“feed aggregator” instead of “feeds aggregator” [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Is it correct to say “lesson count” or “lessons count”?
I find it odd that the common expression (see Wikipedia for example) is "feed aggregator" ...
9
votes
6answers
267 views
“For both our sake” or “for both our sakes”
Should sake be pluralized in this usage?
For both our sake, I'm going to leave now.
For both our sakes, I'm going to leave now.
4
votes
2answers
142 views
Why “pay top dollar” and not “pay top dollars”
Why do we use pay top dollar and not pay top dollars? Dollar is countable, so dollars look more correct.
2
votes
3answers
151 views
Why “go to the movies” and not “go to a movie”
Why do we use Do you ever go to the movies? and not Do you ever go to a movie? Is the latter also correct?
2
votes
3answers
90 views
“Art developer” or “arts developer” [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the difference, if any, between 'art', 'the arts', and 'Art'?
Which is more correct in describing a software developer: art developer or ...
2
votes
2answers
108 views
How do I ask someone if their name represents a singular entity or a collective entity?
In a website I am programming I present the user with the option to name their website site, which can be a singular entity "Mel Tormé" which would present the menu options "About me", "Contact me" or ...
2
votes
2answers
69 views
“In second” or “in seconds” when talking about time [closed]
When talking about time as a unit, which one is correct, in second or in seconds?
For example:
How long does it take to complete the task in second?
or
How long does it take to complete the ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
Two nouns. First one has to be plural? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
“User accounts” or “users account?”
Is it correct to say “lesson count” or “lessons count”?
should a list of tokens be called a “token list” or a ...
1
vote
3answers
126 views
How do I pluralize Italian foods, like pasta noodles (spaghetti, macaroni)? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Was the usage “Spaghetti were” ever acceptable or common?
What does Maugham mean by “his spaghetti were”?
Is it proper to say spaghettis for ...
1
vote
4answers
145 views
Plural of “a stone's throw away”?
A stone's throw is described as approximately 20 to 25 feet.
Does it make sense to describe double that distance as "two stones throws away" or would I have to use some other unit?
See also this ...
1
vote
1answer
82 views
How to write the “plural of plural”?
I'm always confused how to write a "something of something else" in English, especially when plural is involved. For example, what would be the correct way to write the following sentences in English:
...
