Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with plural

"It work." or "It works". Which is correct?

usermac — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:40:10 -0800

Alright all your grammar masters. My wife is foreign and she announced "It work." when I rubbed her shoulder and fixed her pain. I corrected her by saying "It works." to teach her well. She then proceeded to explain to me the English of "plural" with adding an "s" to the verb. Is this correct?

Six mice scared one goose by stepping on it's two feet.

anastasiav — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 07:55:02 -0800

My son has become fascinated with non-standard plurals in English, and I need more examples to feed him. Can you think of more like: Foot --> Feet; Goose --> Geese; Mouse --> Mice. What I'm not looking for is inside: Examples that I'm not looking for: Examples where only the ending changes, even if it's a big change (ie: bacterium --> bacteria), or examples where the plural is the same as the singular: (Moose --> Moose). Thanks!

Do all nouns have a plural form?

West of House — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:48:46 -0800

English language filter: Do all nouns have a plural form? If not what is an example of a noun with no plural form?

What is the plural of "Batman"?

Joe Beese — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:34:02 -0800

What is the plural of "Batman"? If a newspaper article captions a photograph of several children dressed up as Batman for Halloween, they seem to be always be referred to as "Batmen".

But should it not be "Batmans"?

"Batman" - unlike "batman" - is not a generic noun. I believe it is a proper name - like "Zorro" or "Proudfoot".

The plural of "Zorro" is not "Zorri". The plural of "Proudfoot" is not "Proudfeet".

Unless "Batman" is some kind of title? Making Bruce Wayne "The Batman" as Rocky Balboa was "The Champ"?

Random Late-Night Grammar Question

Buddy-Rey — Fri, 28 May 2010 00:02:04 -0800

I know this is a silly question, but I've never been able to figure this out. If my sister and I have a favorite song, how would I describe that fact in a sentence? "That's my sister and I's favorite song", "that's my and my sister's favorite song", "that's my sister's and my favorite song?", or some other permutation I may not be seeing? If possible, could you also give me a name and/or description of the grammatical rule at play in this sentence? I'm just curious.

Thanks!

Are surfing The Google with iPad?

tmcw — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:50:32 -0800

What's the term for the use of a product name as a singular noun (like iPod), and why do companies do this? This has been bugging me, but I'd like to understand it or know how to refer to it better. The most obvious instance is Apple, and the word iPod. For instance, on one page:

Use iTunes to fill up iPod shuffle with your favorite songs, organize your music, manage playlists, and shop for even more.

(iPod Shuffle is a singular, ala God, etc)

Get new features that make iPod touch even more fun.

(again)

Feed your iPod classic.

(now it's a specific iPod)

The new iPod nano. Now rocking a video camera, a polished anodized aluminum finish, and a larger screen. Also making its debut: FM radio with Live Pause.

(Now a specific singular; they never refer to it as 'The iPod Nano' with an adjective like 'new')

At this point I think you've all identified me as a crazy nitpicker, proceed.

It appears like this kind of marketing is trying to make 'iPod' into a brand and not a device, and just has rather inconsistent lines between when we are referring to the physical object and when to the idea of iPod.

Note that there's also a restriction between two ways of referring to websites; everyone mocks GWB, etc., for referring to "The Google" but how is this less accurate than "Google"? What is the grammatical term for this shift? And how, of course, The Facebook became Facebook.

Need some apostrophe help.

shelayna — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:58:50 -0800

When you pluralize a number, do you need an apostrophe? What I mean is if someone's address or phone number contains the number 3 twice, do I say it has two 3's or two 3s?

Love or loves?

papayaninja — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:32:55 -0800

What is the plural form of the noun "love"? My friend and I are arguing on Facebook. He says "love" and "loves" are both acceptable, I think it's only "loves."

Google's first hit on "plural love" doesn't even mention the -s as an option and claims that "love" is the only plural, which it pretty obviously isn't. Another hit claims that I'm right.

So, who's right? He says, "there are different kinds of love, just like there are different kinds of treeS." Since trees is plural, and in the same position as love, is love plural in that case? I think there's something fishy grammatically there, though, since "kinds" is the subject. I'm not even sure what part of speech "trees/love" are in that sentence. Objects of a preposition?

Lastly, I think "there are different kinds of tree" works decently, anyway, even without the s. It's a little awkward, and I'd probably add the s anyway, but doesn't it at least work?

tl;dr - Is it "love" or "loves" or both?

Possessive?

niccolo — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:55:07 -0800

Where should the apostrophe go in the sentence "In Memory of Great Loves Lost"? Loves is plural (referring to all the loving in the world), but does it possess "lost"? Should it be loves'? The closest example is Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost", but people apostrophe it many different ways. I've also tried to find where this example should go on the amazing apostrophe chart that was posted here a while back, but I am still uncertain.

Any questions not answered in #2 pencil will receive a score of zero

saysthis — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:24:37 -0800

Grammarfilter! Oh my. Is it "X and Y are two side of the same coin" or "X and Y two sides of the same coin"? This was an SAT sample question, and I, a poor girl's tutor, swore that "sides" must be plural in this context. Then the sample test website told me I was wrong, that it's "two side". Bonus: The website also told me that my understanding of the perfect aspect was suspect, via:
"If only I had read the instruction manual before taking apart the engine." WRONG (this was apparently simple past?)
"If only I read the manual before taking apart the engine." CORRECT (this is perfect?)

I'd appreciate some resolution here. Now, granted, my use of grammar isn't perfect in this particular question, but that's because, hello, people don't speak in "perfect" College Board grammar, nor is my particular specialty SAT English requirements. I'm a language coach, as dopey as that sounds. I work with fairly advanced ESL students to kind of drag the language out of them, with significant explanation of BASIC grammar in their NATIVE language. Which is to say that I'm an expert in English as it's used, not as prescriptivists think it ought to be.

Disclaimer: I took our apparently unwitting client because my boss told me to. I'm kind of stuck with this girl, and I want to do right by her, so I'm asking.

I'm 99.99% sure I'm right in both these questions, but I need some freakin' professional help here. Do I really suck at perfect tense? Am I one of a majority who's out butchering an idiom that ought to be a torchlight for proper plural development? Any and all criticism and links are welcome.

Are there singular/plural pairs in english with completely different spellings?

Crosius — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:41:58 -0800

In French, the singular of eye is "oiel" and the plural is "yeux." Are there any nouns in English that have completely different spellings of the singular and plural like this?

a blessing, a doom and a pryde walk into a bar...

jrishel — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:25:57 -0800

You have a murder of crows, sleuth of bears, even an exaltation of larks, what about Fairies? the only other mythical creatures I've been able to find collective nouns for are Unicorns (a blessing), Sasquatch (a pod), Griffins (a pryde), and Dragons (a doom)

In a recent conversation with a friend, he mentioned that "Goldbond Medicated Powder is like a squadron of fairies blowing on my testicles."

clearly a squadron just feels wrong in this sentence (among so many other things that are wrong with this sentence...) so what would the right collective noun be for a pack of pixies?

What is the plural of "print out"?

ChasFile — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:56:57 -0800

What's the plural of "print out," as in, "hey John, if you're going near the printer could you get me that print out?" What would we say to John if we wanted him to get us more than one?

HOW DO EXPRESS TEH IDEA OF MORE TAHN ONE BEATIN' ???

ignignokt — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:26:57 -0800

How do I pluralize a contraction that already ends with an apostrophe? I was just IMing with a friend and needed to pluralize the word beatin', which ends with an apostrophe. If I were to just add an s, I'd get:

beatin's

That looks like the possessive form of "beatin" and is totally wrong. Alternatively, I could put the apostrophe at the end, but that makes even less sense.

"There is" or "There are"

syzygy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:53:41 -0800

English Grammar: "There is" vs. "There are". There is a banana. There are two oranges. There (is / are) a banana and an orange? How about:
There (is / are) a banana and two oranges?
There (is / are) two oranges and a banana?

I've searched on google for a definitive answer to this question. Most of the ESL lessons I've come across avoid this kind of construction, altogether. I've also stumbled on some discussions of the topic which seem pretty contradictory.

For the example sentences I provided, I think the following answers are correct: "is", "is" and "are".

I understand that the subjects of all of the sentences are plural, but I think that an ellipsis allows for the "is", as in: There is a banana and (there is) an orange.

Can someone point me to a definitive answer?

Radioactive Mooses?

blue_beetle — Thu, 10 May 2007 09:18:20 -0800

pluralsfilter: Why don't we use words like "radiations"? It seems like a lot of words that have logical plurals don't ever get used in english. Radiations means essentially the same thing as emanations or emissions, but we don't use it the same way. Why is this? Where can I find more information about why we drop the pluralization on some many words?

What do you call a group of ninjas?

qbxk — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:43:14 -0800

What do you call a group of ninjas? You know, like gaggle of geese, murder of crows, school of fish, all that. Does a group of ninjas have some sort of descriptor? We're talking many people in halloween costumes, how to address them together. The { blank }

Is there a proper plural for "ethnicity"?

pardonyou? — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:34:20 -0800

Is "ethnicities" a proper plural of "ethnicity"? I'm editing a sentence containing a list, and I'm concerned about parallelism. The sentence is along these lines: "Our organization reflects numerous cultures, backgrounds, ethnicity, and experiences." To me, "ethnicities" reads better, but I'm not sure it's a proper word. If not, is "ethnicity" a proper plural, or would "ethnic backgrounds" work better?

Subjects and Verbs

rkent — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:38:10 -0800

From this thread:

... you're probably aware that Clear Channel own ...

What is the DEAL with verb/subject disagreement when it comes to corporate entities?? Clear Channel is an IT! Likewise band names. I can't remember how many articles I've read with phrases like "Metallica are..." or "Led Zeppelin are..." Why is this OK in the music business? I know this is mostly rant-y, but I'm genuinely curious if anyone has, like, the Rolling Stone Style Guide or something.