English use of plurals with numeric (decimal) fractions is peculiar, particularly in the spoken form.
Category Archives: Plurals
Twins
A twin is a single person, who happens to have been born alongside another. That’s different from Dutch, in which “a twin” refers to the identical twosome.
The singular of criteria…
…is “criterion” in English, not “criterium”.
Fireworks
Dutch treats the broad concept of pyrotechnics as a singular noun, “vuurwerk”. English doesn’t: fireworks are in the plural.
The singular ‘they’
“If the patient can’t sleep, ask them if they need pain-killers.” This usage is perfectly acceptable.
“Check out the brain on Brad”
You’ve only got one brain, even if you’ve got a lot of brains. Uh?
An Officer and a Gentleman
Nothing tricky about this one. A role or profession in the singular requires an article: “he is a teacher” or “she is the CFO”.
Generalized case plurals
“I had a phone conversation with ten dentists” in English is a conference call, but in Dutch it would usually mean ten separate calls, one with each.
People persons
The plural of person is ‘people’, except in legalese and occasional old-fashioned texts.
Training
There’s no such thing as “a training”. You either receive training – a general, uncountable noun – or take a training course.
Advanced Dunglish 