Is it grammatically correct to say “Utilities Operations”?

Question

My department is titled Utilities Operations. We run the utilities (heating, cooling, power) for a public university.

It seems to me that the correct title should be either Utility Operations or Utilities Operation.

It appears to be a pronoun, therefore you can call it whatever you want. However, "Utility Operations" is the most idiomatic I think. — Max Williams, Jul 29 '16 at 06:39
@Wrzlprmft "pronoun" is a shortened version of "proper noun". — Max Williams, Jul 29 '16 at 08:36
@MaxWilliams: Nope, pronoun is a semi-anglification of the Latin pronomen, which is composed of pro (instead of) and nomen (name). Pronouns are a word class (containing such words as we, it, they) that is entirely distinct from proper names. — Wrzlprmft, Jul 29 '16 at 08:45
Possible duplicate of singular/ plural in the attributive. Also see 'Woman' or 'women' as a stand-in for the adjective 'female'. — Edwin Ashworth, Jul 29 '16 at 11:14
A department title can be pretty much anything. And which one would be preferred would depend on the details of the department's responsibilities. — Hot Licks, Jul 29 '16 at 12:15

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 18 '16 at 17:09

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I believe Utilities Operations is correct since they're two separate nouns unlike if it were used as a compound noun in which case it would be Utility-Operations

Think of it this way; how would the words Utility Operations indicate that the department dealt with multiple operations for more than one Utility.

edited Sep 18 '16 at 17:09

tchrist

134,759

answered Jul 29 '16 at 04:22

Ash

706

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 29 '16 at 12:23

As already hinted in the comments and by the capitalization of the two words, Utilities Operations is a proper noun. At least the person who named it thought so. As a proper noun grammaticality does not really apply.

As Max Williams already provided, Utility Operations is the most used of all combinations of pluralization as evident in this ngram.

Since you however ask specifically for the grammaticality of the term that does not help you. Besides the arbitary spelling possibilites of a proper noun the combination is more or less a compound noun (I cannot name an English compound noun with both parts in plural right now). Most of them are pluralized at the last word (Cambridge).

So, if you want to use the two words in a sentence without referring to your department the best possibility might be utility operations.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 29 '16 at 15:47

Ignoring the point that the department name is a "proper name" and thus exempt from the rules, "utility department" would be most appropriate if one group within the department directly provided service for all the different utilities, whereas "utilities department" would be more appropriate if the department contained separate internal groups for the individual classes of utilities, or if the department simply contracted out to the various external utility/maintenance companies.

Is it grammatically correct to say “Utilities Operations”?

3 Answers3