So many newsreaders, etc., when speaking, say £100 not £100's and this annoys me. Am I right, or can pounds be both singular and plural. I hope I am right, as it just sounds so wrong.
I'm assuming that "£100" is supposed to mean a pronunciation of "a hundred pound" and "£100's" a pronunciation of "a hundred pounds". (This isn't a very clear way of writing it.)
In standard British English it should be "a hundred pounds" (and similarly for any other quantity of pounds greater than one). I'd be surprised if many newsreaders say otherwise. "a hundred pound" is either very casual (I would say sloppy) colloquial English or, for speakers in some parts of the country, a dialect variant.
When used adjectivally, "hundred pound" is correct: "a hundred-pound ring".
In standard British English it should be "a hundred pounds" (and similarly for any other quantity of pounds greater than one). I'd be surprised if many newsreaders say otherwise. "a hundred pound" is either very casual (I would say sloppy) colloquial English or, for speakers in some parts of the country, a dialect variant.
When used adjectivally, "hundred pound" is correct: "a hundred-pound ring".
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One exception to this would be when using paper money. You say "ten pound note" not "ten pounds note".
People do say "one hundred pound" when they should say "one hundred pounds", try not to let it bother you and try to avoid doing it yourself.
well on my teacher's notes talking about nouns, she write down:
"notice that units of numbers of lenght, of value, and of weight are generally in the singular when it is modified by another quantifier:
about three dozen
more than five thousand
almost four million
four pound fifty"
well, beside the fact it is not IT IS but THEY ARE (very good teacher indeed), i've had immediately a doubt about pound as every kind of value is countable. all right is an exception but that didn't sound good at all. i thought WTF have i said for the last 2 years dollars as everybody and it is really uncorrect??
so i went to check "points to notice about cardinal numbers", basically what she was referring for her notes. NO trace of value, instead only talking of words as hundred/thousand/million/dozen. with example as well: "ten thousand pounds".
well anyway, beside the fact that the definition is obviously wrong as this rule is only true with hundred/thousand/million/dozen which are simply cardinal numbers and a determiner, not units of lenght (meters, miles, feet, yards, inches) nor weight (grams, ounces, kilos, tons, stones, pounds), could it be possible that when you've got to say a price which includes decimal then the value no matter what get to be singular for any reason?? as she wrote four pound fifty? or is true four pounds fifty?
Ta very much for your help
Mirco
Well, on my teacher's notes, writing about nouns, she goes like this:
"notice that units of numbers of lenght, of value, and of weight are generally in the singular when it is modified by another quantifier:
about three dozen
more than five thousand
almost four million
four pound fifty"
Beside the fact it is not IT IS but THEY ARE (very good teacher indeed), I've immediately had a doubt about pound as every kind of value is countable. all right is an exception but that didn't sound good at all. i thought WTF have i said for the last 2 years dollars as everybody and it is really uncorrect??
so i went to check "points to notice about cardinal numbers", basically what she was referring to for her notes. NO trace of value, instead only talking of words as hundred/thousand/million/dozen. with example as well: "ten thousand pounds".
I reckon then the definition is wrong as this rule is only true with hundred/thousand/million/dozen which are cardinal numbers and a determiner, not units of lenght (meters, miles, feet, yards, inches) nor weight (grams, ounces, kilos, tons, stones, pounds); BUT, is it possible that when you've got to say a price which includes decimal, the value, no matter what, get to be singular?? as she wrote four pound fifty? or is it only correct four pounds fifty?
Ta very much for your help!