Re: inch/inches

["Denise Stephenson"<stephend@gvsu.edu>]

     I don't know such details by name. It seems to me that it's because of the 
     parenthetical. Here "inches" refers more to the length than the object.
     
     After all, you'd say he caught a fish which was six inches long. And you'd 
     say a three inch lobster.
     
     Am I in left field?


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: inch/inches 
Author:  <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu > at internet
Date:    10/28/1999 3:22 PM


Dear Grammarians,
     
On a paper a student wrote:  The lobster (three and a half inch) was too 
small  to meet the legal limit. 
     
When the Instructor said that the student should use "inches" instead of 
inch (because it was plural), the student disagreed and cited the following 
example: I caught a six inch fish.
     
Why is inch singular when is comes before the noun, yet plural when it 
comes after: The fish was six inches long?  Can you help?
     
     
Assistant Professor of English
UMA/UCB
262-7753