Pants plural why

The German words for trousers, underpants and spectacles are: Hose Unterhose Brille All feminine singular. Yup, I know the feeling! Yet we brush our teeth, not brush our tooth Like Like. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email Address never made public. Follow Following. English-Language Thoughts Join 3, other followers.

Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Yes but the question is, why a pair of pants is a single object? A pair of shoes is a couple of separate objects. What, no, a pair of shoes is singular just as a pair of pants is. Look at the pronouns you just used! If you're talking about whether the parts of the whole can be used separately, well, just cut a pair of pants in half and you have yourself a pant and a pant. I guess that this answer scored fewer upvotes because of its grammatical errors e.

Show 1 more comment. Bob Benson Bob Benson 29 1 1 bronze badge. I would normally say one leg, not one pant. Yes you can say one pant, one leg or one pant leg when you are referring to pants. It's the proper use of singular and plural as set by at least years of usage in modern English. It may be proper, but it's not used in practice. So while I wouldn't say this is wrong, it's definitely not typical usage. Eric Eric 1, 11 11 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. But that doesn't explain why. Other languages manage perfectly well making them singular.

However, a pair of scissors is "sax", which is singular. Have to disagree regarding "other languages". They may manage to make pants singular but then they do not have the subdivided singular, individual pant in the same word. This answer is as correct as any. Pants, in common use, are actually collections of pairs, NOT a plural of pant. Swedish just runs into the same trouble in a different way if translating the previous sentence It may actually be out there but certainly most languages hit the same issue — Garet Claborn.

Garet Claborn Garet Claborn 1, 1 1 gold badge 12 12 silver badges 20 20 bronze badges. Ngoc Pham Ngoc Pham Speak for yourself. I have both a left shoe and a right shoe. So go ahead: In the comments below, ask Uncle John anything. Pants are a singular object. Always in the multiple. But why? Pants are clearly a single object. Indeed, words for nether garments all seem to have been commonly plural throughout their history, often prefixed by pair of Commentators referred to them when they first appeared as being a combination of breeches and stockings.

Later the word was applied to fashionable tight-fitting trousers. Trousers came into the language in the seventeenth century from the Gaelic trowse , a singular word for a slightly different garment rather more like breeches; a later version of it was trews , taken to be a plural because of the final s.

Breeches has been plural throughout its recorded history, a long one it dates from at least the year