USAGE: Currencies and -s

DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:

> From: "Lars Henrik Mathiesen"
>
> > In Danish (where I'm reasonably sure about the facts), there's a class
> > of nouns where indefinite singular and plural coincide. And for some
> > reason, all the SI units and most units of currency end up in that
> > class. The exceptions to the latter that I can think of are kroner,
> > centimer, rialer (with Danish plural endings); dollars; and pesos,
> > escudos, and other spanish-sounding currencies.
>
> Actually, I was thinking after I sent my last post, English does this too
> with reasonably unfamiliar monetary units, particularly the "exotic East"
> currencies:
I think you're right here.  For some reason, I find "yens" and "yuans"
completely unacceptable; "kronas" almost as much.   "liras" is slightly
better than all those, but I'd still prefer "lira" as the plural of liras,
personally.

All currencies historically well-known to the English speaking world
seem to have the plural -s for me:  pounds, dollars, francs, marks, pesos,
rubels (let's not forget loonies!).

Speaking of weird plurals, what's the status of "pence"? Is that a plural
of penny, or some independent usage?

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Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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