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Let's play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game. If you play "rock", then would you say?

  1. I've got a rock
  2. I've got rock (without a)?

The first option seems much more natural. On Youglish you can find only examples supporting the first option. For example I got a rock in my shoe.

https://youglish.com/getbyid/87298883/i%20got%20a%20rock/english/us

The doubt weather the first option is correct lays in the lack of "a" before rock in the descriptions of the game. Whenever "rock" is mentioned, it goes without "a". Here are examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_paper_scissors

In Rock paper scissors, rock is scissors' "Kryptonite", scissors are "what" to rock?

In one fell swoop, I would like to ask the same for scissors and paper. Scissors seem to be plural so I guess "I've got scissors" is a proper form. I am not that sure with paper. Can a native speaker shed a light on this trifle please?

Update after comments. I would like to use this game to engage children in practicing phrases as "I've got ...", "What have you got?" Obviously, the children deserve to be equipped with correct phrases. The focus of the question is in grammar rules, not in the game rules.

Update 2. Changed "I got" to "I've got..." following Edwin Ashworth's comment. Thanks.

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    My intuition is that a more proper transcription would be "rock" (in quotes) or Rock (capital R) and in either case, these would not require us to include "a." I think that "I got a rock in my shoe" is not informative for this particular usage.
    – Yorik
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 21:17
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    The game is played with hand gestures, not words.
    – Xanne
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 23:44
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    When playing the game vocally, you don't even say "I got [a] rock". You say "Rock!"
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 8:34
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    It would be I've got 'rock', as you haven't got an actual rock object, but 'rock' is merely a label here. Similarly you say 'Rock' beats 'scissors'.
    – Oliver Mason
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 9:45
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    Yes; 'rock' etc here should be treated as quotes (I selected scissors) ('I got' implies it was imposed from above. You probably mean (I've got scissors / rock / ...). (I've got Mr Bun the Baker.) In a dice or normal card game, it's different: 'I've got a 5 / a jack' is common.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 15:10

2 Answers 2

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Saying "I got a rock" implies that you are holding a physical rock or are pretending to hold a physical rock which is not what is meant when playing the game. You are using a symbol to represent a rock not pretending that you are actually holding one (e.g. the way an actor might pretend to hold and talk on a mobile phone on stage without actually holding one). Another way you could think of it is in comparison to the chinese character for sheep. This character is supposed to physically resemble the drawing of a sheep, but it is a symbol representing a sheep not an actual sheep.

To expand on this you can think about them as specific categories represented by the symbol of rock, paper or scissors e.g. the category of rock, in fact sometimes the game is played with different symbols e.g. elephant, cat, mouse. The rock in the game has become disassociated from an actual rock and is now just a category represented by the word rock and the symbol. This is as lots of people know the game well so think of the game and categories on their own terms instead of in comparison to other things.

I would probably be more likely to say "I chose rock" or "I picked rock". This is because you are talking about your decision to go with rock, paper or scissors, so you want to pick a verb which talks about you making a decision. Using get in the context of decision making implies that you had little choice about what option you got, i.e. 'get' - you passively received the option of rock; 'chose' - you actively chose the option of rock.

Scissors is plural as scissors are considered a pair of scissors and are therefore plural (similar to a pair of shoes). This presumably comes from a pair of scissors having two separate parts and blades which are only joined by a pin. This can seem a bit odd as you never come across a single scissor but it is just a quirk of language.

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  • As you made your point clear, it makes me confused if it is appropriate to use these phrases as teaching equipment for kids because most likely the children are going to use these phrases in relation to real physical objects. That is a dilemma for decision for screwing the rules:-) Great answer! Happy to make your first up vote :-)
    – Przemyslaw Remin
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 14:14
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Let's play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game.

This is not idiomatic. "Rock, Paper, Scissors" is the name of the game, so you do not need (and nobody says) Rock, Paper, Scissors game.

Because it is a name, "Rock, Paper, Scissors" does not take a determiner.

The correct version is "Let's play Rock, Paper, Scissors"

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    You missed the point. Imagine you play in a dark room. What will you say to inform other player what you just played. "I got rock" or "I got a rock"?
    – Przemyslaw Remin
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 10:08
  • In that case, Weathrvane's comment is as good as an answer.
    – Greybeard
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 11:06
  • Weather Vane pointed to unsatisfactory workaround and by no means has not settled the dispute. I'd welcome a categorical statement which of the 2 options is correct.
    – Przemyslaw Remin
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 12:02
  • I find it hard to imagine anyone playing Rock-Paper-Scissors in the dark! But if people did, they probably wouldn't actually move their hands at all (there's a risk of accidentally punching your opponent, especially with "Rock"!). Players would just each shout out (on synchronised cue) their choice from the three words. There's no "syntax" involved here.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 15:00

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