Usually people say "How was your weekend?" But weekends are two days right? Then why don't we say "How were your weekends?" (If we are asking how his/her weekend was then which one of the two are we referring to :) )
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5How was your month? In what year were you born? Are you coming next week? Please buy a dozen eggs. Do you have a deck of cards? That a composite has multiple components does not mean that the composite itself is plural.– PellMelCommented May 23, 2016 at 15:52
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2 Answers
One weekend is made up of two days. I ask about the singular item unless I have a specific reason for the plural "weekends."
The singular "weekend" is more common.
I would say "How was your weekend?" (singular) as equivalent to "How were your days away?" (plural).
If I had not seen my friend for fifteen days (a period of time which covers two weekends), only then would I say "How were your weekends?" and I would say that only if I wanted to know how four of the fifteen days were for my friend.
This is similar to how a week is made up of seven days. I would say "How was last week?" when referring to that one single block of time. If it was four weeks since I last saw my friend, I would say "How were the last few weeks?"
answered May 23, 2016 at 14:59
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That is what my confusion is. According to this: thefreedictionary.com/weekends we can use both weekend and weekends. Also: dictionary.com/browse/weekends Commented May 23, 2016 at 15:02
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1@user1539343 Because you can have multiple weekends, each of which consists of two days - I work weekends, we've spent many weekends at that cottage Commented May 23, 2016 at 15:07
Any object that is a collection is itself singular.
How was your weekend (a collection of days that is known to most parties)?
How is your soufflés (a collection of ingredients)?
There are some collections that contemporarily pluralized... pants is a good example.
How do you like those pants? How do you like that pair of pants?
Both can be asked of the same garment, but it's an oddity.
If the question is in opposition to "how were your weekdays?" then the correct question would be "how was your week (a collection of days)?"
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The same could be said of a series of stories brought together into an anthology. Commented May 24, 2016 at 17:01