Pounds in the plural, please!

Except, not accept!! B Auto cotrrect!

welbeck

it is an older form, not incorrect.
how many of you weigh ten stones.

I certainly don’t add the s when I write ten stone six.
I had to listen carefully to whether I say pound or pounds. It seems to be a mix accept when you add the number of pence after it, e.g. I would always say four pound fifty, not four pounds fifty. Whichever way is pedantically right, the second sound clumsy.

I think the hyphen should only be used to clarify meaning as in man-eating shark.
What is wrong with the pound sterling? What would you say instead?
We say "twenty pound note" quite happily, don't we?

Lexisgranny

A friend, even older than I, remarked the other day, that when she was out of the house, unless in the middle of a large field (unlikely) she hardly opened her mouth because so many words that she had happily used for years were now unacceptable and she would be frowned at. Sad really.

Which words, for example?

A friend, even older than I, remarked the other day, that when she was out of the house, unless in the middle of a large field (unlikely) she hardly opened her mouth because so many words that she had happily used for years were now unacceptable and she would be frowned at. Sad really.

I don't have a problem - I have always called it "one P (pee)" which, if I remember rightly, was encouraged right back at the start.

I can honestly say that, as someone who was still a child when decimal coinage was introduced, I have only very rarely heard this coin referred to in speech as 'one penny'.
It sounds very odd to my ear, very old-fashioned, as if the user is still thinking in 'old money'!

Maybe that is just me though.

grandtanteJE65

Grannynannywanny

Pound doesn’t bother me. But I have heard one pence mentioned on several occasions and that does grate.

When decimal coinage was brought in, a lot of people who cared for the English language complained about "1 pence" and "a one pence piece, or coin" as we said, quite rightly, that "pence" could be understood as the plural of "penny", or as a collective noun, which obviously was referring to more than a single penny.

At the time, we were told that calling the new coinage's smallest unit "1 penny" would tend to confuse people.

Why this view was held I never understood, but by now it is far too late to do anything about this usage.

It did say '1 new penny' and '2 new pence' on the coins

Grannynannywanny

Pound doesn’t bother me. But I have heard one pence mentioned on several occasions and that does grate.

This.

Gelleh

argymargy

I have noticed that the Irish tend to say euro rather than euros. I quite like it, although I agree that "pound" is awful!

I think the EU legislated that it should be euro without the s. It is the British who say euros.
I dunno about pound/s, we say 20 quid not quids.

I don't know if it was legislated but you are, in essence, correct.

The motivation was to have a plural which was common in all languages instead of euros, euroen, euroa, eurot etc.

I agree about euro in the singular. our bank in France used to expect that.
What about pound Sterling? Still doesn't feel right.
We're different.

The old ones (weren't they huge!) were one penny and the new ones were one new penny IIRC

Grannynannywanny

Pound doesn’t bother me. But I have heard one pence mentioned on several occasions and that does grate.

When decimal coinage was brought in, a lot of people who cared for the English language complained about "1 pence" and "a one pence piece, or coin" as we said, quite rightly, that "pence" could be understood as the plural of "penny", or as a collective noun, which obviously was referring to more than a single penny.

At the time, we were told that calling the new coinage's smallest unit "1 penny" would tend to confuse people.

Why this view was held I never understood, but by now it is far too late to do anything about this usage.

Wow I would not use a hyphen in that example. Current overuse of hyphens really grates on me. I’ve moved on from apostrophes as that seems like a lost cause.

Yes, it grates on me, too.
In the case of a ten-pound pony, though, since it’s an adjective (a compound adjective?) that’s different.

I had to think about something similar when doing an OU course on the 19th century novel. One of our student email group was asking (for her essay) when ‘nineteenth century’ should be hyphenated, and when not.

I’d never consciously thought about it before, but when it was adjective plus noun, as in, ‘during the nineteenth century’ obv. no hyphen, but when they were coupled as an adjective, as in, ‘nineteenth-century literature’, hyphen needed.

Pound doesn’t bother me. But I have heard one pence mentioned on several occasions and that does grate.

I hate “quid” (instead of pound(s) £) which that presenter of Homes Under The Hammer property show always says. Makes me want to shout at the telly.

I hate it too.

Marian Keyes says yoyo's in her books for euros.

I have always said 'pound' as both a singular & plural. I agree that it is dialect rather than incorrect.

Welbeck, I certainly WISH I weighed ten stones!

My GC brought up in the USA say Math instead of maths and my DD was doing it but I notice she is starting to say maths again. With pound, it irritates me, even more, when they say pound sterling.
What used to really get me was when representatives of a country were called say the Ireland team, not the Irish team. I know my grammar is not great but why not Irish? I can see why with reporters as they are not necessarily from the country.
As for Victor Meldew I wouldn't worry I've been told I'm like getting like Agnes off Mrs Brown's boys. My Irish heritage is starting to show. I don't use her bad language but I'm getting short and fat, know my King Edwards from my Maris Piper and have started to have a penchant for pink cardigans and always laugh at what I shouldn't..

it is an older form, not incorrect.
how many of you weigh ten stones.

Just had a practice as I wasn’t sure what I said but can confirm ‘so and so only cost ten pound’ ….. ooops gulligranny

It is written in French, with an s but of course not pronounced.

argymargy

I have noticed that the Irish tend to say euro rather than euros. I quite like it, although I agree that "pound" is awful!

I think the EU legislated that it should be euro without the s. It is the British who say euros.
I dunno about pound/s, we say 20 quid not quids.

The general plural of "pound" has usually been "pounds" (at least since Chaucer), but the continuing use of the Old English genitive or neuter "pound" as the plural after numerals (for both currency and weight) is common in some regions. It can be considered correct, or colloquial, depending on region.

So take your pick - but don't complain about the singular being a modern thing

That said, I copied that from Wiktionary, so I can't actually vouch for its accuracy.