Timeline for Six feet/foot five: Does adding "inches" affect the grammatical form of "foot"?
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:38 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Oct 24, 2016 at 8:41 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | It's weird because it's used predicatively (not attributively) so you would expect that it would have to be feet, not foot. Remember that the baby is seven pounds (not *pound) three (ounces)—applying the same logic, John Cleese should only possibly be six feet five, but the opposite is the case. ‘Pound’ being singular here is the bit that doesn't conform to the general rule. | |
| Oct 24, 2016 at 4:07 | comment | added | Yulia | Just to clarify: > 8.John Clease is six foot five. (this is actually the weird one) Why is it weird? (Lambie said that "He's six foot five" was ok.) | |
| Oct 23, 2016 at 23:16 | comment | added | Dan | Fascinating question. Great answer. My beautiful seven-pound-three-ounces baby...? 'Hyphen-ability seems to influence whether or not to make 'pound' singular or plural. | |
| Oct 23, 2016 at 22:02 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Wikipedia gives an accepted partial exception to the rule highlighted above: nine day wonder Alternative forms: nine days wonder / nine days' wonder. This is probably the partial retention of an archaic form, 'Kemps nine daies vvonder', published in 1600 (The Phrase Finder). | |
| Oct 23, 2016 at 21:49 | history | edited | tchrist♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 23, 2016 at 21:31 | vote | accept | Yulia | ||
| Oct 23, 2016 at 21:31 | comment | added | Yulia | Tchrist, thank you very much for your exhaustive answer. This is exactly what I needed. I am using a dated textbook now in which there are a good many misprints to boot, so sometimes I get stuck on grammatical forms. | |
| Oct 23, 2016 at 20:57 | history | answered | tchrist♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |