Pounds in the plural, please!

grandtanteJE65

Grannynannywanny

Pound doesn’t bother me. But I have heard one pence mentioned on several occasions and that does grate.

When decimal coinage was brought in, a lot of people who cared for the English language complained about "1 pence" and "a one pence piece, or coin" as we said, quite rightly, that "pence" could be understood as the plural of "penny", or as a collective noun, which obviously was referring to more than a single penny.

At the time, we were told that calling the new coinage's smallest unit "1 penny" would tend to confuse people.

Why this view was held I never understood, but by now it is far too late to do anything about this usage.

It did say '1 new penny' and '2 new pence' on the coins

I don't have a problem - I have always called it "one P (pee)" which, if I remember rightly, was encouraged right back at the start.

I can honestly say that, as someone who was still a child when decimal coinage was introduced, I have only very rarely heard this coin referred to in speech as 'one penny'.
It sounds very odd to my ear, very old-fashioned, as if the user is still thinking in 'old money'!

Maybe that is just me though.

A friend, even older than I, remarked the other day, that when she was out of the house, unless in the middle of a large field (unlikely) she hardly opened her mouth because so many words that she had happily used for years were now unacceptable and she would be frowned at. Sad really.

Lexisgranny

A friend, even older than I, remarked the other day, that when she was out of the house, unless in the middle of a large field (unlikely) she hardly opened her mouth because so many words that she had happily used for years were now unacceptable and she would be frowned at. Sad really.

Which words, for example?

I think the hyphen should only be used to clarify meaning as in man-eating shark.
What is wrong with the pound sterling? What would you say instead?
We say "twenty pound note" quite happily, don't we?

welbeck

it is an older form, not incorrect.
how many of you weigh ten stones.

I certainly don’t add the s when I write ten stone six.
I had to listen carefully to whether I say pound or pounds. It seems to be a mix accept when you add the number of pence after it, e.g. I would always say four pound fifty, not four pounds fifty. Whichever way is pedantically right, the second sound clumsy.

Except, not accept!! B Auto cotrrect!