This tag applies to questions that deal with grammatical number: “singular” versus “plural”, and (rarely) also “dual”.
1
vote
2answers
330 views
“A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst […], keeps asking”
In the last chapter of The Catcher in The Rye:
A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here,
keeps asking me if I'm going apply myself when I go back to school
next ...
8
votes
5answers
836 views
“My last couple of years” — singular or plural?
Should I use "wasn't" or "weren't" in the following sentence?
My last couple of years as an Edison Eagle wasn’t all about fighting
and bad friendships.
20
votes
2answers
345 views
Use of lone apostrophe for plural?
I've been reading William Manchester's book "American Caesar", which is about Douglas MacArthur, and I found that he uses a strange convention for pluralizing the family name. When talking about the ...
-4
votes
1answer
196 views
The correct way to say something is hired on an hourly basis
Which of the following is correct?
We hire our bicycle...
by the hour.
by hours.
by an hour.
for hours.
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Are these plural or singular?
I was surprised when I heard zero is plural, and even 1.00001 is plural.
Then, what about following numbers ?
(1) 1.00
which means the value measured between 0.995-1.004, having possibility that ...
0
votes
2answers
269 views
“This chapter, and the following chapters in this section” — singular or plural?
I have some technical documentation that has the phrase:
This chapters describes how to...
And I need to upgrade it to refer to the current and following chapters. What is the correct English ...
1
vote
1answer
269 views
Is it “Sales collateral” or “Sales collaterals”?
My question is whether you use the plural or singular form — or either. Is there perhaps also a different usage in the US and the UK?
5
votes
3answers
5k views
“This kind of things” vs “These kinds of thing”
I have a question about the following text:
Last week Alex Knapp at Forbes published an article criticizing my Nikola Tesla comic. I don't normally respond to these kinds of thing, but since it's' ...
-2
votes
1answer
349 views
Subject-Verb Agreement question [closed]
You, the employer, contribute the most.
You, the employer, contributes the most.
which one would be correct?
Thanks!
17
votes
5answers
1k views
How do I pluralize a name ending in “y”?
Frequently when I refer to or address a family, I do so by pluralizing their last name, e.g., The Smiths, or The Ramones. But suppose I want to address a family whose last name ends in a "y", e.g., ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
“My brother or one of my sisters” — singular or plural?
Should I use 'was' or 'were' in this example?
I was always delighted when my brother or one of my sisters was/were asked to do them.
8
votes
1answer
2k views
Is “public” plural or singular?
I wonder if the word "public" is plural or singular. Does anybody know?
3
votes
1answer
89 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
447 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?
2
votes
4answers
488 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
492 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 ...
...
3
votes
1answer
176 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
1answer
77 views
“Number of attempts per question is unlimited” or “are limited”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“A number of students” vs. “the number of students”
I want to know whether the following construct is correct:
Number of Attempts per ...
0
votes
3answers
773 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
397 views
Plural form of Abbreviation Ending in O [duplicate]
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
217 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"?
2
votes
3answers
2k 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
837 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
986 views
“The contents of the cereal box” — singular or plural? [duplicate]
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 ...
1
vote
0answers
21 views
“Contact group” or “Contacts group”? [duplicate]
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
247 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
173 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
303 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
899 views
Plural of “syntax” [closed]
What is the plural of syntax? Would it be syntacies? What rule would govern this kind of construction?
0
votes
1answer
111 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 ...
5
votes
4answers
335 views
Usage of apostrophe in “baker’s dozen”
In the phrase “baker’s dozen”, why does the apostrophe indicate possession of a (single) baker? Shouldn't it indicate possession of all bakers in general? Shouldn’t it be “bakers’ dozen”?
-2
votes
2answers
161 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 ...
-2
votes
2answers
330 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. ...
9
votes
4answers
2k 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 ...
29
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
486 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
466 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
2answers
1k 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
299 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 ...
6
votes
13answers
2k 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
2k views
One and a half minute/minutes [duplicate]
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
430 views
Possessive form of “one of [a list]”? [duplicate]
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
440 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
2answers
1k 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
248 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
369 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
0answers
16 views
grammatical-number [duplicate]
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
34 views
How should I pluralize letters? [duplicate]
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
20 views
“feed aggregator” instead of “feeds aggregator” [duplicate]
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" ...
