Wednesday, December 19, 2012

grammatical number - Is "Selected 1 of 1 Entries" correct pluralization?



I'm trying to work out any possible pluralization strings for an application that handles dynamic values, and I'm a little stuck on the English here.. What I think sounds right doesn't feel right.




Pluralization options:




  • Selected 1 entry (correct)

  • Selected 2+ entries (correct)



But if I want to include the total as well:





  • Selected 1 of 1 entries (is this correct? it sounds correct to me)

  • Selected 0 of 1 entries (is this correct?)

  • Selected 1 of 2 entries (correct)



I know it's trivial, but these little details matter to me..



EDIT: If the count is the max, another option is to express this as:





  • Selected all 2 entries (correct)

  • Selected all 1 entry (this doesn't sound correct? is it?)


Answer



Using entries for a single entry is not correct, which can be demonstrated by describing them/it. Adding an adjective to break up a standard expression helps analysis because it’s no longer the customary expression which “just is”:




There is 1 available entry (Indisputably correct)
Selected 1 of 1 available entry (Follows by analogy)




There are 2 available entries (Indisputably correct)
Selected 1 of 2 available entries (Follows by analogy)



There are 1 available entries (Indisputably wrong)
There is 1 available entries (Indisputably wrong)
Selected 1 of 1 available entries (Wrong by analogy)




Using “1 of 1 entries” probably sounds right because




  • it’s very common

  • the “1 of” implies that there is more than one available, and therefore entries might be expected to follow it.




but just because “everyone does it” doesn’t make it correct.


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