Re: inch/inches

[Suzanne Diamond <diamonds@marietta.edu>]

I'd just say "it's a PUNY lobster"!!!
SD

Denise Stephenson wrote:

>      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
>