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When referring to a restaurant specializing in fish and chips would you call it a fish and chip shop or a fish and chips shop?

Mari-Lou A
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Larry Hopkins
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  • "Fish" is plural like "people". On the other hand if you describe several kinds of fish or people you can use "fishes" and "peoples". – Rusty Core Feb 08 '19 at 18:26
  • @RustyCore we very rarely say "fishes" and I have absolutely never seen a "fishes" shop. – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 18:32
  • Does this mean I'm wrong in describing someone as a meat and potatoes guy? I've always used the the plural potatoes. – Larry Hopkins Feb 08 '19 at 19:06
  • Larry that refers to a dish he likes rather than a shop. – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 21:01
  • Most fish and chip shops in the UK are take-aways with nowhere to eat inside the shop, whereas a restaurant would normally be somewhere that not only has tables but also at-table service. (McDonalds be damned, you are not a restaurant, regardless of what you want to call yourselves.) – David Richerby Feb 08 '19 at 21:03
  • @ DavidRicherby I have been in McDonalds restaurants in UK but I admit not recently. – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 21:14
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    If the term were "fish and chips shop", the extra "s" would decay rapidly because few people would take the time to clearly enunciate it separately from the "s" in "shop". – Boann Feb 08 '19 at 22:35
  • Maybe this varies by place. Answers should say where they are talking about. – GEdgar Feb 09 '19 at 00:56
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    Where I come from (Scotland) - it's a 'chippie'. – Nigel J Feb 09 '19 at 00:58
  • @WeatherVane A fish and chip(s) shop is no different – fish and chips is as much the name of a dish as meat and potatoes. There’s no syntactic difference between the two constructions (other than one taking the singular and the other the plural); the difference is purely syntactic, in the semantic, real-life relationship between the modifier (dish) and the head (shop/guy). – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 09 '19 at 02:09
  • A note that when written, it should be hyphenated: fish-and-chip shop. – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- Feb 09 '19 at 06:03
  • @DavidRicherby I've just counted all the fish and chip shops. 52% are restaurants – Strawberry Feb 09 '19 at 13:15

3 Answers3

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It is a "fish and chip" shop, but you order "fish and chips".

Or just a chip shop since they always sell fish too.

In general, a shop selling a product refers to its product as a collective noun in the singular.

Chip shop — sells chips.
Cake shop — sells cakes.
Curtain shop — sells curtains.

Weather Vane
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    In the UK I presume. In Canada there are "chip wagons." These are trucks that sell french fried potatoes with gravy and curds. This is extremely popular in Quebec. No fish. It's called "poutine." – puppetsock Feb 08 '19 at 18:49
  • @puppetsock for French StackExchange? – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 18:52
  • Vain That would have been "pas de poisson" if it was for the French SE. – puppetsock Feb 08 '19 at 19:02
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    @puppetsock moi, j'ai un "passion de pois". – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 19:05
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    In Canada there are also 'fish and chip shops', and also 'chip trucks' that may sell chips (or fries) with or without cheese curds and gravy. – DJClayworth Feb 08 '19 at 20:34
  • True generally, we do say "clothes shop" but that is just about unique, other items of apparel are singular in this sense: "shoe shop" and "hat shop" for instance. – BoldBen Feb 08 '19 at 20:41
  • @BoldBen yes. Before I posted the answer I had clothing shop — sells clothes but removed it when I realised it can be the other way round, an exception that did not help the answer. – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 20:47
  • We say "clothes shop" because there is no singular of "clothes". – DJClayworth Feb 08 '19 at 20:49
  • Women's clothes shop? Children's bookshop? As for F&C, I recall locals calling it a "chippy". Is that outdated? – Mari-Lou A Feb 08 '19 at 20:59
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    @Mari-LouA "chippy" is still in vogue AFAIK. – Weather Vane Feb 08 '19 at 21:00
  • @puppetsock in the UK many "chip shops" also sell meat pies, burgers, kebabs, etc as well as fish (several species) and chips. Plus the side orders, like mushy peas and curry sauce. And in Scotland, they will deep fry pretty much anything - including chocolate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar – alephzero Feb 08 '19 at 22:41
  • Just the other day in the US I saw "chippery" used to describe a restaurant that sells fish & chips. – Todd Wilcox Feb 08 '19 at 23:24
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    A singular portion of fish and chips is still just one "fish and chips", so I think your logic could still dictate that "fish and chips shop" is correct. – ESR Feb 09 '19 at 09:28
  • @DJClayworth I think you're right, the nearest are "clothing", as Weather Vane included then removed, and "garment". "Garment Shop" used to be used rarely but I don't think it is any more. As shoes are usually sold in pairs I think "shoe shop" is a very good argument that shops are described singularly. – BoldBen Feb 09 '19 at 12:06
  • @puppetsock "In Canada there are 'chip wagons.' " - In the UK, a "chip wagon" (or "chip truck") would be a "chip van", or more commonly a "burger van" (which would also sell chips). – MrWhite Feb 09 '19 at 15:50
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"Attributive nouns" or the first elements of compound nouns tend to be singular in form

There is no absolute rule forbidding the use of a plural noun in the first part of a compound, but it is more usual in general to use the singular form.* "Fish and chip(s) shop" doesn't seem to be an exception to this tendency. The Google Ngram Viewer suggests that both forms exist, but that "fish and chip shop" is more common than "fish and chips shop":

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I don't think phonetics is an important factor

Some comments have brought up the supposed phonetic indistiguishability of "fish and chip shop" and "fish and chips shop", but I can't see how that could determine the spelling one way or another: even if it is true that nobody ever pronounces these any differently in practice (which I rather doubt), that wouldn't prevent people from using the spelling "fish and chips shop" for the pronunciation [fɪʃn̩t͡ʃɪpʃɒp]. I think the use of the spelling "fish and chip shop" is based mainly on grammar, not on phonetics.

*Some exceptions to this tendency are mentioned in the answer here: Singular/plural Nouns as Adjectives

Community
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herisson
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  • (1) I believe that phonetics is an important factor.  If we replace “shop” with “restaurant”, the singular version still comes out ahead, but by a much narrower margin (Ngram link, image).  (2) I believe that it is relevant that “fish” is a collective noun and “chip” is not.  You can say “I want to have fish for lunch”, but you wouldn’t say “I want to have chip for lunch”.  … (Cont’d) – Scott - Слава Україні Feb 09 '19 at 15:59
  • (Cont’d) …  (3) If I bought a ticket for a Rolling Stones concert, and the event turned out to be a Rolling Stone concert, I would request a refund. – Scott - Слава Україні Feb 09 '19 at 15:59
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When a noun is used as an adjective, it is almost always the singular form, even when the noun is not normally used as a singular. E.g:

  • car - car alarm
  • house - house key
  • trousers - trouser press
  • spectacles - spectacle maker

But:

  • clothes - clothes line

So, "fish and chips" is the noun phrase, and becomes singular:

  • fish and chips - fish and chip shop
CJ Dennis
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