Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 23

Thread: My Bellows Is Fine

  1. #1

    My Bellows Is Fine

    Thinking caps on: Is the noun "bellows" singular or plural? Should it be, "My bellows ["is" or "are"] fine and dandy"??? -jeff buckels (albuquerque nm)

  2. #2

    My Bellows Is Fine

    Hi Jeff,

    I'll leave the formal definition to the linguistics experts, but I vote for:

    My bellows ARE fine.

    Bellows seems to be one of those confusing nouns, like pants, that end in an "s" and use plural verb forms (my pants ARE blue - not my pants is blue) even though they refer to a single item.

    Of course, it gets even more confusing. We do call them a PAIR of pants after all. Why, I don't know - looks like a single article of clothing to me. My shirt has two sleeves, but I don't refer to it as PAIR of shirts. And I use the singular verb when talking about my shirt (my shirt IS blue). Now socks - they make sense. I buy them, wear them and refer to them (my socks ARE blue) two at a time - they truly are a PAIR of socks.

    I guess as long as your bellows is/are fine, that's all that really matters no matter how you say it.

    Kerry

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    Greenbank, WA
    Posts
    2,605

    My Bellows Is Fine

    Is your scissors fine too? I'd vote for "are."

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    128

    My Bellows Is Fine

    Is lens singular or plural? You can have a twin lens reflex, but can you have a single len reflex? Why do you drive on a parkway and park in a driveway? Things like that just baffle me.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Mar 1999
    Posts
    769

    My Bellows Is Fine

    While we're on the subject, how come we say 'he', 'his' and 'him' but not 'she', 'shis' and 'shim'? Cheers, DJ.

  6. #6
    Yes, but why? David R Munson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 1999
    Location
    Saitama, Japan
    Posts
    1,494

    My Bellows Is Fine

    I think I may have an answer here. I'm looking at one of the refernce books I have left over from my last journalism class, When Words Collide, A Media Writer's Gude to Grammar and Style, and on page is the following bit of text...

    Collective Nouns Their singular fomrs denote a group of people or things- for example, jury, herd, athletics and politics. They can be troublesome for subject-verb agreement. If the noun is considered as a whole, the verb and associated pronouns are singular: The jury has returned its verdict. If that unit is broken up or considered individually, the plural verb is required: The herd of cattle have scattered because of the dust storm.
    Now then, I personally feel that the word bellows falls into the former category, and therefore would call for the use of singular verb forms and pronouns. This especially makes sense if you consider the term set of bellows, which is generally interchangable with bellows and which would also necessitate singular verb forms and pronouns.

    Those are my thoughts on the matter, anyway...

  7. #7
    Yes, but why? David R Munson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 1999
    Location
    Saitama, Japan
    Posts
    1,494

    My Bellows Is Fine

    Hmmm.....looking at the title I do believe I misspelled a word. I'm not quite sure what a "gude" is....

  8. #8

    My Bellows Is Fine

    Him bellers am fine, also else ils dandy.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Posts
    182

    My Bellows Is Fine

    It is my understanding that "bellows" is plural. A "bellow" is a flexible connector with a pair of folds. If you have more than a pair, then you have plural pairs - therefore many "bellows".

    I vote for "bellows ARE..."

  10. #10

    My Bellows Is Fine

    I finally looked it up in the dictionary. It lists bellows as a noun and can be used singular or plural. That's odd. It gives "bellow" as a seperate listing. Bellows has its own listing. That's all the bellowing I am going to do on this subject, unless someone were to bellow about the condition of my bellows, which is/are o.k. on all but one of my cameras which have bellows.

    regards,

Similar Threads

  1. What is fine art photography?
    By Leonard Metcalf in forum On Photography
    Replies: 54
    Last Post: 26-May-2008, 04:50
  2. shooting fine art
    By Savanna in forum Cameras & Camera Accessories
    Replies: 36
    Last Post: 16-Jul-2006, 17:50
  3. dia-fine developer
    By martin_4668 in forum Darkroom: Film, Processing & Printing
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 21-Feb-2005, 10:42
  4. Bellows required for the new "Fine Art" lenses?
    By Jeff Corbett in forum Cameras & Camera Accessories
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 27-Oct-2004, 12:21
  5. Fine Focus for D5
    By Gavin Bowden in forum Darkroom: Equipment
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 26-Feb-2000, 01:30

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •