Plurals of Numbers
The following rules apply to the plurals of numerical terms such as dozen, score, hundred, thousand, million, and similar:
- When modified by a number, the plural is not inflected, that is, has no -s added. Hence one hundred, two million, four score, etc. (The resulting quantitative expressions are treated as numbers, in that they can modify nouns directly: three dozen eggs, although of is used before pronouns or definite noun phrases: three dozen of them/of those eggs.)
- When not modified by a number, the plural takes -s as usual, and the resulting expression is not a number (it requires of if modifying a noun): I have hundreds, dozens of complaints, the thousands of people affected.
- When the modifier is a vaguer expression of number, either pattern may be followed: several hundred (people) or several hundreds (of people).
- When the word has a specific meaning rather than being a simple expression of quantity, it is pluralized as an ordinary noun: Last season he scored eight hundreds . The same applies to other numbers: My phone number consists of three fives and four sixes.
- Note the expressions by the dozen etc. (singular); in threes etc. (plural); eight sevens are fifty-six etc.
Read more about this topic: English Plural
Famous quotes containing the word numbers:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)