Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 July 25

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July 25

Words with two definitions where only one can be pluralized

Sorry, I know that subject line is confusing. I just thought of the word JUSTICE, which means both (1) the quality of being just and (2) a judge. You can pluralize it to JUSTICES for the second definition, but the first definition doesn't have a plural. Can anyone think of any other words like this? I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of any. Thanks! Fbv65edel — t — c // 19:54, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Beauty: (1) the quality of being beautiful - unpluralizable; (2) a person displaying the former quality - pluralizable. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:02, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) There are quite a few. I was paid attention to was taught to pay attention to those in my English classes. Hair and experience could be examples. --Theurgist (talk) 20:04, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

some off-topic material

Since you mention your English classes, I'll point out that you probably meant either "I paid attention to them..." or "They were called to my attention...". I hope this doesn't come across as mean. I offer it purely because it's an odd phrase that I thought you'd like to use in a natural way. 86.164.66.83 (talk) 20:14, 25 July 2010 (UTC) Thanks for the remark! To the best of my understanding of English grammar, the sentence is not incorrect, however odd it might appear. And if it is wrong after all, then I'm not the first one to err that way. It's stricken now, and replaced with something more common as a phrase. --Theurgist (talk) 20:29, 25 July 2010 (UTC) Yes, the expression you used originally is common enough, but it means that someone (usually the teacher in this case) paid attention to you. Dbfirs 20:47, 25 July 2010 (UTC) The original expression was not "I was paid attention to", but instead "I was paid attention to those". The same construction has been used by someone here and here. --Theurgist (talk) 20:59, 25 July 2010 (UTC) I think the writers meant "my attention was drawn to" in these examples. Dbfirs 12:35, 26 July 2010 (UTC) Those are execrable examples of "English". I strongly advise you not to emulate them. The only acceptable passive form of "I paid attention to X" is "Attention was paid by me to X", but it's stodgy, clumsy and unnatural. Having one's attention drawn to X by a third party is not a case of "being paid attention to". -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:13, 25 July 2010 (UTC) OK. --Theurgist (talk) 21:21, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Strength? The physical quality is not pluralized but in the sense of "something you are good at" you can have many strengths. (While thinking about this, it also occurred to me that "brains" works the opposite way - you can have a roomful of jars of brains, and brains in the sense of lots of intelligence, but you can't have only one of the latter.) Adam Bishop (talk) 20:36, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Another one is humor. The four humors/four fluids v ha ha humor. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:45, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

"Two heads are better than one when counting how many head of cattle are on this property". There's another well-known use of 'head' that applies only in the singular. It has to do with a kind of donation.  :) -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 02:11, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia article mass noun gives some examples.162.40.211.165 (talk) 03:42, 27 July 2010 (UTC)