[macmedic892]

How about this one?

Monies as a plural of money.

It's another thing I hadn't seen until moving from Northern Illinois to the New Orleans area when I was 11. Up north, I'd been taught that money was both the singular and plural.

Down south, money and monies are used interchangably. It even earned me a detention, when I said in class that the letter being sent home was wrong. It said, in reference to the annual chocolate sale: "Please turn in all monies you collect to the school office." I challenged the teacher, who sent me to the office, where the note originated--punting the problem instead of dealing with it. Turns out, the first person I complained to was the person responsible, who thought they were interchangable. I also didn't know when to quit, and earned the detention for insubordination.

[Political Junkie Too]

Monies as a plural of money.

I think that one is okay. It's on the order of fish and fishes.

With fish, the plural is "fish" when speaking of many fish of the same kind. When speaking of different species collectively, it's "fishes."

The parallel is that when speaking of different currencies or monetary units collectively, it's "monies," but when speaking of the sum in your pocket, it's still "money" even if it is made up of coins and paper.

Back to money, when counting out change, you would still say, "eight, nine, ten, and ten is twenty", not "...and ten are twenty" as in several coins and paper; you would say "is" because it's a singular concept of one sum total number.

-PJ

[Red Boots]

Turns out, the first person I complained to was the person responsible, who thought they were interchangable. I also didn't know when to quit, and earned the detention for insubordination.

I hate when that happens.

I remember arguing with my 6 th grade teacher about the words lumber and wood. He said they had different meanings; I looked them up in the dictionary and found them to be interchangable. He was not as thrilled with my discovery as I was.