Three Dozen=36 Or Dozens Of? - WordReference Forums

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You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. three dozen=36 or dozens of?

• Thread starter Thread starter natasha_139
• Start date Start date Aug 8, 2011

N

natasha_139

Senior Member

SHENZHEN Chinese Hi there, I know there are many threads about "dozen", none of which can clear my doubts. Here's my problem: I read this sentence on Economist.com To buttress this apparently formidable firewall, three dozen states have imposed constitutional or other legal bans. In the above sentence, does "three dozen" mean "36" states or several states? Thank you!

gandolfo

Senior Member

Back in Roma Roma English-British Hi It means 36 states. A dozen is twelve therefore, three dozen is: 3 multiplied by 12

Andygc

Senior Member

Devon British English Although it means 36, in the article it is used as an approximation - the author means a number of states, about 30 to 40.

GreenWhiteBlue

Banned

The City of New York USA - English

Andygc said: Although it means 36, in the article it is used as an approximation - the author means a number of states, about 30 to 40. Click to expand...

I would not understand it that way at all. I would understand it to mean 36 states. L

losvedir

Senior Member

English - California

Andygc said: Although it means 36, in the article it is used as an approximation - the author means a number of states, about 30 to 40. Click to expand...

I would not call either 30 or 40 states, "three dozen". To me, the article is saying "very nearly 36" states. If the author meant exactly 36, they would say 36; it's too coincidental to believe they would use "three dozen" instead. I would consider it to mean the 35-38 range.

Andygc

Senior Member

Devon British English

GreenWhiteBlue said: I would not understand it that way at all. I would understand it to mean 36 states. Click to expand...

Really? Reading a BE writer (which this appears to be), I would expect exactly 36 to be written as 36 whereas it would be not at all unusual to find three dozen written to mean approximately 36. Not having details of which states have behaved in that way, I can't count them to check.* Of course, if it was an article about eggs, three dozen would certainly mean 36 - although if it was bread rolls it might well be 39. * Ahh - but I can - Wikipedia! which seems to give a total of 40 states which have "imposed constitutional or other legal bans" by defining marriage by constitution or statute. F

Fabulist

Banned

Annandale, Virginia, USA American English I would not hold a writer to 36 if he wrote "three dozen." If he knew there were exactly 36.000, I would expect him to write "36." I would interpret "three dozen" as "about 36." I would feel cheated if it turned out that the exact count was only 30, but 34 or 35 would be acceptable. Forty is a little high for "three dozen"; if he knew that it was more than 36 but wasn't sure whether it was 39, 40, or 41, he could have written, and I would have preferred, "over three dozen." Literally, of course, in terms of U.S. states, that could be any number from 37 to 50, but if it were 45 or more I would expect "about four dozen." One reason to use a vague number would be to keep the statement reasonably accurate even if a few states later repealed their legislation or constitutional amendments, or passed new statutes or ratified new amendments, changing the count. Writing "three dozen" avoids having to write, "As of 2 p.m. on August 7, 2011, 40 states . . ." G

Glenfarclas

Senior Member

Chicago English (American) Agreed. I would expect it to be an estimate, but I would also expect the author to have used "over 30" or "almost 40" if the number were closer to 30 or 40 than to 36.

gandolfo

Senior Member

Back in Roma Roma English-British Maybe someone needs to contact the writer to find out whether he meant about 3 dozen or just 3 dozen. I assume much in the same way that andy assumes, albeit on the contrary, that 3 dozen is thirty six otherwise "approximately" or "around" or "about" would have been used P.S. Andy Wikipedia is, after all, a watertight source

Hermione Golightly

Senior Member

London British English Iam absolutely sure ( Ah! Sweet music to my ears!), that it is an approximation, as Fabulist writes. I have an impeccable authority for this statement, a senior transatlantic financial journalist and top editor. Since the UK decimalised, the centuries, even millenia, old 'dozen' has lost its meaning in everyday life. We buy in units of ten, except when packaging dictates an even number, eggs for example. A "couple of dozen" used to mean exactly twenty-four. Now it could mean at least between 20 and 24. If you want an exact number you say precisely how many you want. Hermione Last edited: Aug 8, 2011

panjandrum

Senior Member

Belfast, Ireland English-Ireland (top end) Hermione is being coy about her source. I understand "three dozen" to mean "approximately 36" - plus or minus 10%. F

Fabulist

Banned

Annandale, Virginia, USA American English If the number really is 40, as reported by andygc, then, whatever the expectations of others, the original writer did not mean "exactly 36.000 states, not even one section more or less" when he wrote "three dozen"—unless 4 states have adopted the same kind of statutory or constitutional provision since he wrote it. R

Rover_KE

Senior Member

Northwest England - near Blackburn, Lancashire British English To me, three dozen means precisely 36. If the author had meant about 36 states he should have written some some three dozen states. ​Rover G

Glenfarclas

Senior Member

Chicago English (American) And does "twelve stone" mean 168.00 pounds, such that if a chap weighs 170 pounds then an author is obligated to say "around twelve stone"? N

natasha_139

Senior Member

SHENZHEN Chinese I know this question is open to arguement as I also googled to get the information. But I want to confirm, in the commonplace, 3 dozen means exactly 36. Is that all right? R

Rover_KE

Senior Member

Northwest England - near Blackburn, Lancashire British English

3 dozen means exactly 36. Is that all right? Click to expand...

I say yes, but I appear to be in a minority. Rover

Andygc

Senior Member

Devon British English

natasha_139 said: I know this question is open to arguement as I also googled to get the information. But I want to confirm, in the commonplace, 3 dozen means exactly 36. Is that all right? Click to expand...

As ever, it depends on context. If a journalist is writing about gay marriage it may well mean about 36. If you are in a traditional boatyard buying some copper nails and you asked for 4 dozen nails you would probably be given a large handful, since they are sold by weight. If you are buying eggs in Britain you will get them in packs of a half dozen or a dozen (unless you buy them by the tray) - Hermione is wrong to say that dozen has lost its meaning in everyday life, since in everyday shopping everybody buys their eggs in multiples of 6, labelled as half dozen on the pack. If you go into a baker's and ask for a dozen bread rolls you will be given 12, unless it happens to be a rare (very rare) traditional baker who does everything in the old-fashioned way, in which case you will get 13. In casual conversation dozen does not necessarily mean 12, but most people would say something like "there were about a dozen people at the bus stop" rather than "there were a dozen people at the bus stop" if the number was uncertain. If they actually counted heads and there were exactly 12 they would usually say so: "there were 12 people at the bus stop". NB - please note that this is my perception of how it works in BE. Others may see it differently @gandolfo. Indeed. As watertight as an old oak barrel that has been left in the sun - I did write "... seems to give a total of 40 ..." Last edited: Aug 9, 2011

natkretep

Moderato con anima (English Only)

Singapore English (Singapore/UK), basic Chinese

natasha_139 said: But I want to confirm, in the commonplace, 3 dozen means exactly 36. Is that all right? Click to expand...

We are agreed that 3 dozen is 36. What is not agreed is whether the choice of expressing the number in terms of dozens means that it is an approximation. My initial assumption was that the author expressed the number in terms of dozens for stylistic variation rather than to signal that the figure was approximate. I like Glenfarclas's point: that any number can represent a rounding off, and this is not peculiar to the use of dozen. Maybe I'm influenced by the fact that when I grew up, our maths classes specifically taught us that a dozen is 12, a score is 20 and a gross is 144. I would set a lower tolerance than panj and say 3 dozen is 36 plus or minus 5%. You must log in or register to reply here. Share: Bluesky LinkedIn WhatsApp Email Share Link

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