I was watching an episode of Monk (S03E12), and in the first few minutes, the detective asks his assistant “Do you have a pliers?” That immediately struck me as weird, but later, towards the end of the episode, he makes the comment “This was cut with a scissors.” The only place I’ve ever seen ‘a scissors’ was in old Peanuts cartoons, and I’ve never ever heard ‘a pliers’, but I guess it could make sense in a way.
I grew up saying a pair of scissors or pliers, which is weird in its own way, since it’s a single object. I’m just wondering if anyone else has ever heard these terms.
I guess he wears a pants too?
I know, right? I guess I should just chalk it up to “That’s just English being English.”
I don’t know if all English is this bad or just something we Americans do.
Monk’s schtick is that he’s a bit of a misfit. It could be that the writers intentionally had him use the words ‘wrong’ as a character bit.
Your comment comes up blank. Lemmy bug?
Definitely heard it before. It’s not right or common, but I know people used to say it in elementary school, teachers and some students.
The only place I’ve ever seen ‘a scissors’ was in old Peanuts cartoons
I was going to say the same thing. It was so unusual that I specifically remember it after 30+ years.
I’ve heard both “a scissors” and “a pliers”, but never “a pants” or “a glasses”. If pressed, I don’t think anybody would object to the proper term being “a pair of”. Since you mention Peanuts, maybe it’s a Midwest thing, since Charles Schulz grew up in Minnesota.
maybe it’s a Midwest thing
That could be it. I guess in the TV show, the writers are trying to show that Monk is an old fashioned guy who uses outdated terms.
Why more words, when few words better?
Most people just leave out the useless and awkward ‘a’.
— “Do you have pliers?”
— “This was cut with scissors.”
Yes, I’m wearing pants and glasses
No, those are all plural.
Why are we counting individual pieces of the scissors? Who knows.
