Pain in the English

Forum for the gray areas of the English language

Table of Content vs Table of Contents

October 30th, 2009 by YD

Apart from the fact that convention is clearly “Table of Contents”, is there a grammatical reasoning for “Table of Content” vs “Table of Contents”?

I guess it comes down to whether the noun “content” is one that can be counted, i.e. several contents, or not.

My instinct is that in fact, content is not an enumerable noun, i.e. it should be Table of Content. But does that mean that MS Word, LaTeX and all other Desktop Publishers out there are just wrong?

YD

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3 Responses to “Table of Content vs Table of Contents”

  1. Paul Rodriguez says:

    The sense of “content” used in “online content” or “content producers” is not enumerable. But the phrase “table of contents” uses it in the older sense of “things contained”, as in “the contents of his pockets,” equivalent to “the things contained in his pockets.” “Table of contents” = “table of things contained in this book.”

    Current score: 6
  2. udayaprakash says:

    There are many contents. So it should be “Table of Contents”. Always it should be in plural form.
    See here also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_contents

    Current score: 1
  3. Kate Y. says:

    My house may only be one place, but it’s still “the premises”, not “the premise”.

    “Content” as a mass noun is a very recent phenomenon.

    Current score: 2

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