What happened to English grammar?

Men's trousers have a fly [fastening] not flies.

absent, Englishmen's trousers have flies, as in "your flies are undone".

Both terms are in common usage. Peace!

Maybe is should be 'your fly's undone' Just asking!

Maybe "flies are undone" harks back to the golden age when there were buttons and not a zip. I am sure Millicent Martin said "your flies are undone" to Kenneth Cope in a sketch on That Was The Week That Was.

Or you could say 'You are flying low today'!

The debate is now much more in keeping with the usual Gransnet stuff.

We used to say 'flying low without a licence'

There were some fairly weird things we used to say for 'your petticoat is showing'. 'Flying the flag' was one, I think. But I imagine the whole idea is incomprehensible now!

"Charley's dead" was another

Years ago a friend's husband told me she was feeling off-colour because she had 'got the decorators in'

I knew *Charlies dead for droopy petticoats. I thought "showing the flag" or some such saying was about having your period. Wonderful language!

DH's family used to say "vive l'empereur" a reference to Napoleon perhaps?

The bird is about to fall off its perch

Could flies fly's go back to the days when it was a sort of trapdoor arrangement at the front?

DES ??

Galen Full circle. We are back to grammar and semantics. Didn't the codpiece used to be attached by lacing round "points", rather like the hooks on climbing boots. The points were referred to in the plural, so maybe the flies were too? Then there is the rigging which holds up stage scenery and curtains etc. That is called the flies - plural - perhaps undoing the flies revealed the scenery in all its glory.

It won't fall off its perch, Des. The thread is not dead, just metamorphosing into other forms and back again. Normal for Gransnet.

And then there are fly leaves in books. I'm thinking flies in theatres might be related to those.

..............and then there is Chinese curry and flies.

Can't see where a fly cuppa or a fly half come from though. Doing things on the fly, perhaps?

At a stretch, the theatre scenery could be said to flt through the air when the ropes are pulled?

Fly not flt. Or possibly flit.

Is a fly tipper someone who tips flies?

How big a tip do you give a fly? Is 1p enough? I suppose it depends whether they have given outstanding service or just done their job to a minimum. ("More than me job's worth to crap on that trifle for you, Missus. I am only supposed to do cream cakes")

Elegran I was reading that out loud in a "flies accent"