Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Don’t you count money?

Now, when I think of counting, the first thing that comes to my mind is money. So why is the word “money” considered un-countable? Why is this wrong?: “I have a lot of monies.”

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Comments

"I have a lot of money."
"Banks exchange foreign monies for local currency."

Therefore, monies refers to different types of money, or funds coming from various sources.

purpledragon_13 Nov-23-2002

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Money is a unique term, like the way that "news" is always plural.

When you say you're counting money, you actually mean bills, dollars, coins, etc, and it would be perfectly acceptable to say "She's got a big stack of dollars" or "what a huge pile of coins!"

Think of it like the word "people" - when you say "peoples," you're not talking about many persons (Dyske, Roxy, Evelyn, and me), but rather many groups of people (Americans, Chinese, Brazilians, democrats). Same deal.

blingbling Nov-28-2002

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