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Re: One And A Half

From:Rene Uittenbogaard <ruittenb@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 6:35
Mark J. Reed wrote:

> In colloquial English, when a number N directly modifies a noun, > the noun seems to be placed in the singular only when N=1 exactly. Consider > temperatures, for instance (choice of scale is mostly irrelevant here, > although my use of negative numbers would seem to imply that it's not > Kelvin or Rankine): > > -1.5 degrees > -1 degrees > -0.5 degrees > 0 degrees > 0.5 degrees (but "half a degree") > 1 degrees > 1.5 degrees > > However, in technical English writing, the singular is sometimes used for > all numbers in the inclusive range [-1,1]: > > -1.5 degrees > -1 degree > -0.5 degree > 0 degree > 0.5 degree > 1 degree > 1.5 degrees > > Or at least in the ranges [-1,0) and (0,1]: > > -1.5 degrees > -1 degree > -0.5 degree > 0 degrees > 0.5 degree > 1 degree > 1.5 degrees > > -Marcos
In Dutch, units are almost always expressed with a singular noun: 5 meter 80 kilogram 220 Volt 298 Kelvin Not for degrees, though: 25 graden (PL) Celsius Units of time are interesting: 60 seconden (PL) 60 minuten (PL) 24 uur (hour-SG) 2 jaar (year-SG) Ik heb twee uur (SG) zitten lezen. I have been reading for two hour-SG. Also for currency units: 10 euro 10 dollar 10 frank. René