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I was watching an episode of Monk (S03E12), and in the first few minutes, the detective asks his assistant "Do you have a pliers?" That immediately struck me as weird, but later, towards the end of the episode, he makes the comment "This was cut with a scissors." The only place I've ever seen 'a scissors' was in old Peanuts cartoons, and I've never ever heard 'a pliers', but I guess it could make sense in a way.

I grew up saying a pair of scissors or pliers, which is weird in its own way, since it's a single object. I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever heard these terms.

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[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Why more words, when few words better?

Most people just leave out the useless and awkward ‘a’.

— “Do you have pliers?”

— “This was cut with scissors.”

Yes, I’m wearing pants and glasses

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

No, those are all plural.

Why are we counting individual pieces of the scissors? Who knows.

this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
24 points (100.0% liked)

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