Newsletter and Grammar Coach

Why do people wear one pair of pants, but not a pair of shirts? Why is the main office of an organization a headquarters, rather than a headquarter? Why does someone enjoy gymnastics instead of gymnastic? How does saying “thank you” only once count as offering “thanks”?

Those contradictions in logic have a common bond: each is an example of a plurale tantum, also called a lexical plural — a noun that exists only or almost always in plural form. The term plurale tantum is Latin for “plural only” and it does have a plural form — pluralia tantum — for reference to more than one such word.

While few pluralia tantum exist in the English language, they’re commonly used. Their origins are hazy in most cases, but we’ll shed light on a few here.

We get childhood illnesses in plural — never just a measle or a mump, but measles and mumps. Two or more bad guys may be in cahoots with each other, but never just in cahoot. You wouldn’t refer to a bubble from your detergent as a sud, even though we refer to the usual cleansing froth as suds. Our system of government thrives not because of check and balance, but through checks and balances. No one ever gives thank; even when you say “I thank you” only once, you’ll be credited for giving thanks.

Despite having two sleeves, we regard a shirt in singular form. Yet pants, trousers, slacks and jeans almost always are expressed in plural form. That’s attributable to the way that pants were fabricated and worn in Renaissance and early modern times, when they were more commonly called pantaloons. The two leggings — or pants — which were laced to a belt or upper garment were separate from the codpiece, which covered the private parts of the lower torso. Eventually merging the three pieces into one garment became customary, but the concept of a pair of pants endured. So it is with jeans, dungarees, shorts and tights and even undergarments. No one wears a boxer or a brief — they’re typically expressed as boxers and briefs. About the only time you’ll encounter the terms “pant” or “jean” expressed in singular form is in fashion industry jargon.

One such garment is a pair of pants; two or more are pairs of pants. Even though pants nowadays are sold as a single garment, they’re treated as a grammatical plural: “Bill’s pants are brown.” But if you add “pair,” the sentence structure becomes singular, as in “That pair of pants is too tight.” That’s because the prepositional phrase “of pants” serves as a modifier of the true subject of the sentence: the singular noun “pair” — the pair is too tight.

Another garment-related plurale tantum term is the word “clothes,” which refers to two or more items. The word “clothe” exists, but only as a verb, as in “the couple worked hard to clothe their family.” Even the singular term “clothing” is reserved for describing multiple items. You wouldn’t say, “I wore a new clothing today.” But you might say, “I wore a new item of clothing today.” Some people hike their pants up with suspenders (another plurale tantum term).

Many tools that consist of two identical hinged components are expressed in plural form. The term for a tool comprising two hinged blades is “scissors.” The word scissor exists in singular form only as a verb, meaning to cut something with a pair of scissors. Other tools that are always characterized in the plural include pliers, tongs, tweezers, bellows and shears.

When you receive your paycheck you count your “earnings.” If you win the lottery you’ll be rich, but you won’t gain rich — you’ll gain riches. Then you’ll be able to buy a billiards table. Even though the English language borrowed that word from the French billard (referring to the game and the cue), it became the plurale tantum term “billiards” in English, in which it is treated as a singular form: billiards requires patience and skill.

Other nouns expressed only as plurals include “gallows,” “doldrums,” “cattle” and “kudos.” Many fixed expressions and phrases have plurale tantum components. Note that wealthy people are said to have “deep pockets” (never only one pocket). One word may not be provocative enough to trigger conflict, but “fighting words” might prompt hostility — perhaps leading to “just deserts” for an aggressor. “Technical difficulties” apparently always occur in multiples. Patients who fail to follow a “doctor’s orders” may find themselves in “dire straits” — perhaps during “dog days.” Apparently for security, you’ll need two or more “keys to the kingdom,” and once there you’ll make progress by “leaps and bounds.” A baseball game with a tie score at the end of nine innings is said to “go into extra innings” — even though only one more inning may be necessary for a winning score. Some scholars specialize in the humanities, but never only one humanity. Cooperative nations engage in diplomatic relations. People who are determined to find something swear to travel to “the ends of the earth” in that search. Perhaps they’re looking for “greener pastures” and won’t be satisfied with only one.

A few pluralia tantum words can be expressed in the singular form as attributive nouns — that is, a noun functioning as an adjective, modifying another noun. One such example is the term “eyeglasses,” which may be stored in an eyeglass case. While the term “headphones” is almost always used in plural form, it functions as a singular attributive noun in phrases such as “headphone jack.” That’s also the case with “binoculars” that are kept in a binocular case. Another plural noun is “premises” when used in reference to one or more buildings and their surroundings (there — that’s another plurale tantum).

Some words can be singular as adjectives, but are plural as nouns. Such is the case with ”odds” in reference to a betting ratio, and “odd” as an adjective meaning unusual or strange. Something can be new (adjectival form) but journalists write or broadcast “news.”

Although we don’t have deep pockets, we hope you gained some linguistic riches by reading this newsletter.

Bart Lasiter owes his life to retired mechanical designer Jim Guigli. Jim didn’t save Bart’s life. He brought him to life.

Bart Lasiter is a fictional character whom Jim created out of his longtime enjoyment of reading mystery novels. Following retirement from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jim began to take more active involvement in his love of mystery fiction by writing. In the process, he created the character Bart Lasiter for an entry he wrote for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest — in which he won the grand prize in 2006.

Driven by a calling to flesh out Bart’s character more fully, Jim began researching the environs of a fictional detective office in a real place — Old Sacramento, only a few miles from his suburban home. Known as the West End in the late 1800s, that waterfront area had begun a slow decline in the early 20th century, and slid deeper into blight during and after the Great Depression. It remained a slum until the late 1960s, when a preservationist movement initiated a slow restoration of the dilapidated buildings. As renovation progressed through the ’70s, it had become a swarming tourist destination by day and by night transformed into a carousing bar scene.

One of the shabbier buildings served as the seedbed for Bart’s haunts — his cramped, drab apartment and office digs to which he began attracting a roster of seamy clientele. Jim Guigli plunged himself into studying Old Sacramento to give as much dimension as he could to his narrative as he began writing about Bart Lasiter’s exploits, initially in short-story form.

But when he began work on a book-length narrative, he realized he needed assistance to transform his manuscript from a word-processing document to a published book. His search for help led him to EditPros’ BookPrep service. Our designer, Marti Childs, consulted with him through the manuscript development process, guided him in shaping the content, and designed the template, cover and other graphic elements of the eventual 420-page book, titled Under the Black Flag — Piracy Is Not a Victimless Crime.

Once the book was properly formatted as a digital file, it became available in both paperback and hardcover editions through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other retailers. It soon won an award in a book contest, the judges of which declared, “This was a superb noir mystery, with all the necessary elements, great characters, excellent dialogue, and great descriptions of settings.”

Although Jim chose to publish Under the Black Flag only in print form, EditPros also formats and converts manuscript files to conform to e-book specifications for sale through Amazon (Kindle), Apple (iBooks), Barnes & Noble (Nook), and Kobo, by means of submission to IngramSpark’s e-book service.

This is the 64th book that BookPrep has helped authors produce during the past eight years. With BookPrep, authors retain all rights to their books, and collect 100% of sales royalties.

We invite you to LEARN MORE about the EditPros BookPrep service.

Betty F. wrote:

“A research paper that’s still in draft form makes some references to ‘small- and medium-sized’ objects (with two hyphens) and others refer to them as ‘small and medium sized’ (with no hyphens). Can you help us make those terms more consistent?”

The grammar coach replies:

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