Lexical Leavings
by Tom Gally
A Japanese student in an American literature class once expressed
surprise when the singular form "sheet" appeared in a story; because the Japanese
is シーツ, she had thought that the word was used only in the plural in English. It
would be helpful to have a list of such Japanese words that are based
on English plural forms but that in Japanese may be either
singular or plural in meaning. Other examples that come to mind are ナッツ, タコス, スーツ, スポーツ, ダーツ, フルーツ, ニーズ, シューズ, and ブーツ.
(December 29, 2002)