Socks or a sock? How it is correct: a pair of socks or a pair of socks?

Socks or a sock? This question introduces into a stupor not only those people who use these words in the letter, but also those who pronounce them aloud. In this connection, we decided to give an exhaustive answer to this article.

general information

How it is correct: socks or a sock? According to the rules of the Russian language on the formation of the plural of any paired objects, this word should sound and be used in the letter as follows: socks. For those who still doubt the information presented, exhaustive arguments are given below.

Socks or a sock?

Before presenting to your attention the rule of the Russian language on the formation of the plural of any pair objects, it should be said that both of these words have a full right to exist. In order for you to see this, let's give some examples:

• The sock has lost. Where is he?
• You should take a pair of socks for a change.

As you can see, both options are quite acceptable for oral or written use. But here a new question arises: how to understand in which context the word "socks" should be used, and in what "sock"? For this it is necessary to return to the examples and analyze them:

1. "The sock is lost, where is it?" This sentence deals with one thing that has disappeared somewhere.

2. "You should take a pair of socks for a change." This passage refers to several subjects, and paired ones.

From the presented analysis it is possible to draw a conclusion how it is necessary to write: socks or a sock. In other words, the "socks" option should be used only for the plural, and "sock" for the single. Only then will your speech be literate, and the letter where this expression is used will be written correctly.

But what kind of rule do we rely on when we talk about such spelling? Let's present it to your attention right now.

Regularities in the formation of plural forms of nouns in the genitive case

A pair of socks or a pair of socks? To answer the question posed, it is necessary to study the simplest rule of the Russian language about ending-i in the nouns in the plural, standing in the genitive case. It should be specially noted that this rule is characterized by such features:

• It is suitable for most of the names of masculine nouns, which in their initial form and in the singular end in a hard consonant letter. Here are some examples for clarity: fly agaric - fly agarics, sock - socks, computer - computers, etc.
• This rule applies not only to ordinary objects, but also to the names of all kinds of fruits, fruits, vegetables, etc. The main thing is that they are nouns of the masculine gender, which in the initial form of the singular end in a solid consonant letter. For clarity, here are some examples: orange - six oranges, eggplant - a kilogram of aubergines, tomato - tomato salad, mandarin - New Year without mandarins.

Exceptions to the rules

Virtually no rule in the Russian language is complete without exceptions. And described above, including. To correctly put your speech or write an article, they are recommended to memorize or memorize.

So, from the rule of the Russian language on the formation of a plural number of pairs of subjects (nouns), a rather wide range of exceptions is distinguished. These include those words (nouns), which in the genitive and plural form have a zero ending. Here are some examples: one Ossetian - six Ossetians, one stocking - no stockings, one gram - six grams or six grams, etc.

The fact that the word "socks" (plural) in the genitive case has the ending -и, we learned above. But what kind of rule obeys those expressions for which it is zero?

The zero ending in the plural nouns

To understand why "socks, but" stockings ", you need to turn to the following rule:

• The zero ending in the plural words in the genitive case is available when it comes to any nationality of a person, as well as his membership in military associations. However, this applies only to those expressions that are used collectively. In order to make the rule more understandable, let's look at some illustrative examples: Turkmens - five Turkmens, Magyars - several madyrs, partisans - two guerrillas, midshipmen - five midshipmen (also five midshipmen), soldiers - soldier's army, man - five men and etc.
• The rule also applies to all possible names of pairs of objects. For example: eyes - eyes, boots - boots, boots - boots, stockings - stockings, cuffs - cuffs, epaulettes - epaulettes, shoulder straps - shoulder straps (but socks - socks!).
• Among other things, it is customary to put a zero ending in different units of measure and the name of the measures. Here is an example: 1000 watts, 230 volts, 500 gigabytes, 5 amps. But if the same words are used not in the "measuring" context, then it is necessary to add the ending -ov to them. For example, in such proposals: "There is not enough gigabytes to download the program on the flash drive", "It's good to live without excess kilograms".

Notes

Now you know that the correct declension of the word "socks" implies that in the genitive case it has the ending -ov, which can not be said about the word "stocking". However, using the presented rule about the formation of many. Part names of nouns, it is not recommended to forget about the following features:

• For some kinds of nouns, the formation of the plural and the genitive is rather difficult. For example, such words as bashka, pleas and a dream.
• The words "drow" and "chechets" have no other forms, except the genitive case and the plural with the zero ending.

Comic rule

In order to remember how to write the words "socks" and "stockings" in the plural and genitive, some teachers recommend to use the following comic rule: socks are short, so they need to be extended - socks, stockings are long, so they need to be shortened - stocking.