Do I write "zero millimeter" or "zero millimeters"?

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Possible Duplicates:
Correct plural form of a zero quantified noun
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In the sentence "There is 0 mm of attached gingiva," is the proper word "is" or "are" when asking about the millimeters?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 14:48

1

It's plural: "How many millimeters?", and this is even if the number is 0.

There was a similar question but I couldn't find it, where the question was about numbers below 0.

answered Apr 26 '11 at 14:48

Alenanno

I flagged it as a duplicate of this: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/13073/correct-plural-form-of-a-zero-quantified-noun – z7sg Ѫ Apr 26 '11 at 14:49
@z7sg: There was another one, which I commented (I didn't reply because it's not in my answers list)... – Alenanno Apr 26 '11 at 14:52
If it can't be found it's not a good question. Then duplicates are inevitable. I found that one straight away though. – z7sg Ѫ Apr 26 '11 at 14:57
@zysg: Yeah indeed, it was the first one... :| I'll flag it as well. – Alenanno Apr 26 '11 at 15:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 14:48

0

There is 1 millimetre and there are 0 or more millimetres

1 is singular
0 or anything but 1 is plural

answered Apr 26 '11 at 14:48

mplungjan

2 Answers2