Posted by Don M. on 03/21/06 16:07

"anthonyberet" <nospam@me.invalid> wrote in message news:486c5tFidvnsU1@individual.net...
> Hammerer wrote:
> <snip>
> >>nope, 1.8 legs is still legs and 1.8 thousands is still thousands :)
> >>
> >
> > And �1.8 in good old sterling is "pounds"? No! It's �1 and 80 shiny, new
> > pence! Twenty shiny, new pence short of *2* pounds sterling! Really,
> > anthonyberet . . . . hold together a cogent argument, whu don't you?!
> >
> You thought you had gotten away with this didn't you?
> Well lookee here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural
>
> Extract:"For example, in English, German, Italian, Spanish and
> Portuguese, the plural form is used for zero or more than one, and the
> singular for one thing only."
>
> Therefore, 1,800 which is clearly not 'one thousand only', must be
> thousand_s_
>
> Goodness, I am fantastic sometimes. ;)
>
==========

You can be a fantastic pest sometimes, yes. 1800 is more than 1, surely. "More than one"
is at least two unless you have a word to quantify 1.8. Clearly 1.8 doesn't qualify for
plural; 1.8 of the unit of measure we call 'thousand' is still 1.8 thousand, more
correctly 1800 is '1 thousand 8 hundred', not '1 thousand 8 hundreds'. Some people say
'eighteen hundred', not 'eighteen hundreds'.

Moreover, that extract you quoted oversimplifies complex linguistic rules and was probably
submitted by a unqualified contributor. Just look at the use of singular and plural in
each of those languages for '4' and '8' in 4800, for example. In plain English even you
should understand: that would be 4 'thousand', not 4 'thousands' and 8 'hundred', not 8
'hundreds'. German follows the same pattern, but not the other 3 languages. In English
you'd use 'thousands' to denote undefined quantity in four figures as in "thousands of
bloody pests infest Usenet", and no, nobody would assume it's just 1 thousand and change..

Case closed. Hammerer wins.


Don
NP: "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" - CCR (noyneeenoyn an a heh u juz won do, owe noh
noh, juz won git it, awe right)


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