How do we count "gales"

Question

I'm wondering how we can actually count "gales". When do we use the singular form and when do we use the plural form?

Here're two examples I've found:

Hundreds of old trees were blown down in the gales. (Cambridge Dictionary)

The gale blew down hundreds of trees. (Oxford Learner's Dictionaries)

Thank you.

If a lot of wind blows, and then it stops, and tomorrow a lot of wind blows, that's at least two gales, isn't it? — Jack O'Flaherty, Oct 14, 2022 at 5:15
Plural means more than one. When a thing is two or more, use plural. A thing can cause damage, and so can things. — Yosef Baskin, Oct 14, 2022 at 14:02

Greybeard · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-14 09:32:04Z

1

Hundreds of old trees were blown down in the gales. (Cambridge Dictionary)

The gales = a series of separate gales within a given period. The gales = the period in which we had a number of gales.

The gale blew down hundreds of trees. (Oxford Learner's Dictionaries)

This is the basic use of "gale": it refers to one gale of which the listener is aware.

answered Oct 14, 2022 at 9:32

Greybeard

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1

I'd say it's more notional than precisionist, and that there is a register ('gales' being perhaps more poetic) factor too. 'In the gales' can conjure up to my mind a single period with fluctuations in wind intensity, sometimes reaching the 'gale' threshold. Of course, there may well be a series of such episodes over a longer timespan.
– Edwin Ashworth
Oct 14, 2022 at 14:29
1

"That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed When the gales of November came early" Gordon Lightfoot.
– Phil Sweet
Oct 14, 2022 at 21:34

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