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  1. E. Randall

    E. Randall New Member

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    Grammar When do I use the singular, when do I use the plural?

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by E. Randall, Aug 30, 2018.

    Sounds simple enough. But allow me to present two examples of my question. The first is simple, and I think will be straight forward – I could probably google the answer if I knew how to phrase it. The second one is more complicated.

    Situation 1: We have a dragon, and the dragon has one eye on each side of its head; that is “laterally placed eyes” - they can see better to the side than they can looking forward.

    My Sentence 1: “ … its neck swung hypnotically left and right to alternately view its pending dinner through the eye(s) mounted on each side of its head.” SO: Should it be “eye” or “eyes” in the above example?


    Situation 2: Four bandits have just been defeated with shuriken—throwing stars. Each has two eyes, and one head. All four heads have two sides (let’s call them the left and right sides, lol). Two bandits have a single shuriken in one of their eyes; another two bandits have a single shuriken in one side of their head. (That’s four shuriken – one to each bandit.)

    My Sentence 2: ( I wrote it like this): “Looking that way, I saw two of them had sharp, pointed stars sticking from their eyes and two had similar pieces embedded in the side of their head.” Repeated now with possible edit/corrections in () : Looking that way I saw two of them had (a) sharp, pointed star(s) sticking from their eye(s) and two had similar pieces embedded in the side(s) of their head(s). ( Or – “…one side of their head(s) or …(a) similar piece….) After writing I thought - if it's "eyes" shouldn't it also be "sides" Then - eyes is plural - because two eyes are involved, but singular because only one eye is involved for each victim, and then --- well, you get the idea... down the rabbit hole.

    Thank You
     
  2. Zerotonin

    Zerotonin Serotonin machine broke

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    In lieu of having this issue, have you considered simply reworking the first sentence? For example:

    Or, if you wanted to get more technical, you could use the actual name for this type of vision, as so:

    However, this raises another question: Why does this dragon have monocular vision? While this style of vision allows an animal to have a nearly 360° field of vision, it severely impairs its depth perception, which can make hunting extremely difficult for a predator such as a dragon.

    As for the second sentence, your pronouns pretty much answer the question for you. Near the end, "their" indicates plural, so it'd be "sides of their heads." The rest of the sentence is fine.
     
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  3. Storysmith

    Storysmith Senior Member

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    Eyes. You can't have a single eye mounted on each side of a dragon's head.

    “Looking that way, I saw two of them had sharp, pointed stars sticking from their eyes and two had similar pieces embedded in the sides of their heads.”

    You are talking about multiple stars in multiple eyes, so they must both be plural. Similarly, there are multiple stars in multiple sides of multiple heads, so all plural.

    For comparison, consider this version that uses the word "each" to talk about the dead as individuals:

    “Looking that way, I saw each of them had a sharp, pointed star either sticking from an eye or embedded in the side of his head.”
     
  4. The Dapper Hooligan

    The Dapper Hooligan (V) ( ;,,;) (v) Contributor

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    I would normally agree that traditionally predators have their eyes facing forward (like lions) and prey have eyes facing outward (like sheep) but there are animals (like sharks) that are both predators and have that type of vision. So, as long as it's not an impediment to the story or the dragon, then it really shouldn't matter.

    Also, if each victim has one wound each, then I would think it would be singular on the body parts and the weapons.
    "Two of the thieves suffered from a shuriken to the eye, while the other two suffered from a shuriken to the side of the head."
     
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  5. Zerotonin

    Zerotonin Serotonin machine broke

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    Very fair point on that, I didn't really consider that some predators do, in fact, have this trait.

    On your second point, I'm not sure if I misread what he wrote, but I read that there was a shuriken in each eye of both bandits. I do, however, agree with your edit of the second half of the sentence. Clears it up much better than mine did.
     

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