Oddbean new post about login | logout WARNING Rabbit Hole Ahead! English gets stranger and stranger as one thinks about what one actually says. Okay, splain this: Singular and plural stuff. One says a pair of... Which implicitly is a singular as indicated by the A proceeding pair. But then we say of geese, which is a plural. Or of boys which is a clear plural. Properly, it seems to me that it should be a pair of boy. Splain this without hand waving.
@f42fdd5b I'm reminded of trying to figure out the gender rules in German. Setting aside the whole gender thing being new to English speakers, you eventually just give up and try to memorize the gender of individual nouns, happy in knowing the person you're speaking to will likely just smile and understand what you're trying to say, no matter your errors. 😎 Besides, these days in Germany people might prefer to speak English to you.
@f42fdd5b I do’t know if you’ve gotten a good explanation yet, and I certainly don’t have the official grammar verbiage to use, but think of it like this: The pair (or group or bus or building) is a “container.” The bus goes, singluar. The bus full of boys goes, singular. What’s in the bus? A boy? Or a bunch of boys? So the singular/plural is not about what’s inside the “container.” The container can hold multiple, plural items. At least that’s how it helps me think of it!