Mister Micawber wrote: |
Here where I live, we deal with those kinds of incidents almost EVERY DAY.
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Kind has two plurals, the old unchanged
kind and the newer
kinds. The original plural can still be used in the expressions
these/those kind of:
" —Usage. The phrase THESE (or THOSE) KIND OF, followed by a plural noun (these kind of flowers; those kind of shoes) is frequently condemned as ungrammatical because it is said to combine a plural demonstrative (these; those) with a singular noun, KIND. Historically, KIND is an unchanged or unmarked plural noun like deer, folk, sheep, and swine, and the construction THESE KIND OF is an old one, occurring in the writings of Shakespeare, Swift, Jane Austen, and, in modern times, Jimmy Carter and Winston Churchill. KIND has also developed the plural KINDS, evidently because of the feeling that the old pattern was incorrect. THESE KIND OF nevertheless persists in use, esp. in less formal speech and writing. In edited, more formal prose, THIS KIND OF and THESE KINDS OF are more common. SORT OF has been influenced by the use of KIND as an unchanged plural: these sort of books. This construction too is often considered incorrect and appears mainly in less formal speech and writing.
KIND (or SORT) OF as an adverbial modifier meaning “somewhat” occurs in informal speech and writing: Sales have been kind (or sort) of slow these last few weeks."
- Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
"
The Unchanged PluralMany substantives are unchanged in the plural, either always or in certain employments.
---
In the familiart
these kind of tools, those sort of speeches, we may look upon
kind and
sort as unchanged plurals; but there is a tendency to treat
kind of and
sort of as inseparable units; cp. the vulgar
kind of before a verb: 'I kind of admire her.' In literary style
books of that kind is preferred to
those kind of books.
In
that kind of thing we have a survival of the old unchanged plural,
thing."
- Otto Jespersen,
Essentials of English GrammarThis usage is one of countless similar controversial points of grammar. The following quote is from the Collins Concise Dictionary:
"The mixture of plural and singular constructions, although often used informally with
kind and
sort, should be avoided in serious writing:
children enjoy those kinds (not
those kind)
of stories; these sorts of (not
these sort)
of distinctions are becoming blurred."
There is disagreement. I am inclined to think that those who compiled the Collins Dictionary may have been born about the same year Churchill died (1965)
![Smile [:)]](/emoticons/emotion-1.gif)
and thus were unaware of what he said and wrote. If the plural
kind is totally rejected, the same logic could be applied to
all unchanged plurals that have been used for ages. The choice is yours; I am a traditionalist and therefore I like old plurals.
CB