Sunday, April 12, 2015

grammatical number - When to, and when not to pluralise month?



Can someone please explain the correct way of pluralising month, for instance why do we sometimes use months or month, such as:



"Victor is a 7 month old baby"



and




"Victor is 7 months old"



What is the grammar behind this?


Answer




  1. '7 month old' is actually '7-month-old'. It serves as an attribute that modifies a noun. (e.g. old in the old dog.)



    It is adjectival and therefore has no plural form. You need to put an article in front of it and a noun after it.




    For example: He is a 7-year-old boy.


  2. 'is 7 months old' is a predicate that states something about the subject. (e.g. old in the dog is old.)



    In this case, adding -s to the end of year is the proper and regular way.



    For example: The boy is 7 years old.



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