NON-DELIVERY of: NON-DELIVERY of: Inch vs. Inches

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                           Delivery Failure Report

                               Your document:
                               Inch vs. Inches
                         could not be delivered to:
                   Ronni Perry -at- CRWMS at DL-Notes -at- DL_CCMAIL
                                  because:
                   MailEx0010: cc:Mail user name too long.
                                Routing path:
                           DLLN2,DLLN2,DLLN2,DLLN2


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Beth,

You said the answer to the question of whether to use "inch" or "inches"
was common sense. I wonder. We do say "zero degrees," and I have a book
from Sybex in front of me that contains the clause "a mere 0.2 inches is
enough" (while not a model of good writing, the book is passable on the
whole). The Chicago manual, on the other hand, although it doesn't treat
the subject, has the unit in the singular where the situation crops up in
the glossary: "Each sort is . . . 0.9186 inch high"; "approximately
0.028-0.091 inch."

Usage such as that in "0.2 inches" is common. The force of a digit other
than 1 before the unit might be the reason. I doubt many of us would notice
such usage except when reading very carefully. I wouldn't call it an
egregious error. Logic and natural language mix most uncomfortably.

You said you were surprised at the question. I wasn't. A friend whose
knowledge of grammar far surpasses mine recently called to ask exactly the
same thing.

Best 'n' all,                   Dan Strychalski   dski -at- cameonet -dot- cameo -dot- com -dot- tw

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