This is in relation to the question "It's “1 degrees” or is it “1 degree” outside?". I have heard many people say that it is zero degrees outside. Is this correct, or is it 0 degree? The latter simply doesn't sound right.
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5Zero is treated as plural in (AFAIK) all circumstances. I have zero apples, zero chips and zero cares – Matt E. Эллен Jan 03 '14 at 18:27
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2There are no cars on the road. – Blessed Geek Jan 03 '14 at 19:51
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@BlessedGeek Great example. +1. – Josh Jan 03 '14 at 20:31
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I don't care how you say it, it's minus 5 right now and I'm freezing. – Mitch Jan 03 '14 at 22:57
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@BlessedGeek: There are no Santa Clauses? – Jan 04 '14 at 17:06
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Will noun phrases and adverbial clauses do? – Blessed Geek Jan 05 '14 at 06:36
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@RahulNarain Or, there is no Santa Claus! – WS2 Mar 09 '14 at 22:22
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@BlessedGeek Or, There is no car on the road! – WS2 Mar 09 '14 at 22:22
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+WS2 There isn't any car in the garage = it has capacity for only one car, or that you expect to see only one car. The is no car on road = there is capacity for only one one car on the road or that you expect to see only one car on the road. – Blessed Geek Mar 10 '14 at 05:37
2 Answers
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"One degree" is correct, as is "zero degrees". It grates on my inner geek that a quantity of zero is pluralized, but that's the way it is.
DopeGhoti
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10Don't think of it as a plural as such; think of it instead as a ‘non-singular’. It applies to everything that is not precisely equal to one, whether it's higher or lower. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 03 '14 at 18:36
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1@Janus: everything except "one half" or "a half", but maybe that counts as a singular half-mile. "One half mile", but "0.5 miles". – Peter Shor Jan 03 '14 at 18:43
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Indeed, it's one half-mile, or one-half of a mile. Either way, it's a single mile that's being halved; hence the singular usage. – DopeGhoti Jan 03 '14 at 18:56
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But that applies to all fractions, not just one half: two-thirds of a mile, three-quarters of an hour. – aeismail Jan 03 '14 at 19:35
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@aeismall it is one third of a mile, two thirds of a mile, one quarter of an hour, three quarters of an hour. – emory Jan 03 '14 at 19:40
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2@Peter, ‘half’ when used like that basically functions like an adjective, so even though the semantic meaning of the mile changes, it is still a singular. You can also speak of a double mile, which is the same as two miles, but it is grammatically singular. Only numerals (including decimals) and determiners can force a noun to non-singularity; adjectives do not (vel sim). – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 03 '14 at 20:05
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Let's do; it'd be "negative one degree", or "one degree below zero", or (if you want to make peoples' eyes twitch) "minus one degree". – DopeGhoti Jan 03 '14 at 20:43
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1If 0 degrees offends, just use 273 Kelvin. For similarly geeky reasons there are no degrees Kelvin – mgb Jan 04 '14 at 01:02
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From the OED,
Each of the marks denoting degrees of temperature on the scale of a thermometer, or the interval between two successive marks.
This usage of degree literally meant to measure against a thermometer containing markings that were called degrees. Thus, zero degrees is when the liquid inside did not rise to any of the marks above. one degree is to say the liquid inside rose to one mark.
Admittedly, we have now greatly expanded the concept of how we conceive of temperature, but such is the origin.
virmaior
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