Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

LEGOs — Is the Plural form of LEGO incorrect?

On this page (#18), the writer says, rather authoritatively, that “LEGOs” (plural of LEGO) is wrong because “LEGO” is a company name (a proper noun). I disagree. Firstly, there is no grammatical rule that says a proper noun cannot be used to refer to a countable object. “Mac” is a proper noun. It’s a name of a product but it is also used to refer to the individual Macintosh machines, i.e., “Macs”. Think of car companies, like Honda, BMW, and Porsche. When we refer to their cars, we say, “Hondas”, “BMWs”, and “Porsches”. BMW’s own site uses the plural form: “Today’s BMWs are equipped with...” And, Porsche’s own site says, “Barely any two Porsches are identical.”

So, I would say “LEGOs” is perfectly fine if you are referring to the pieces of LEGO. It is, however, wrong to say “LEGOs”, if you are referring to the brand/company. 

And, this should be a separate issue from how the company officially uses the term for their marketing and communication. They could have their own policies but that does not make “LEGOs” grammatically incorrect. The correct use of a word is not determined by the person who coined it.

What do you think?

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*Remove "being"

Jasper May-10-2014

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"LEGOs" is wrong, LEGO is an uncountable noun (like sand, water, rice ect.).
You wouldt say that you are boiling "a lot of rices", or "one rice".
You'd say "a lot of rice", or "one rice grain"
In the same way you also can't claim to have a box with "a lot of LEGOs", or "one lego".
What you have is "a lot of LEGO", or "one LEGO brick"

a genius May-11-2020

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LEGO is spelled in all caps and is an adjective and is plural. LEGO is a brand name, not the name of the product. LEGO produces brick based sets and sells loose pieces. American culture is to be independent from the rest of the world at all costs to preserve their masculinity and therefore Americans are the most egotistical people in the world, especially republican nationalists. They believe that the sets and pieces are LEGO so multiple pieces together must be legos right, wrong. Americans view company names as the titles of the products themselves which is wrong

user108973 Jun-28-2020

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wrong
if that were the case gooses would be plural for goose and mices would be plural for mouse
It's not even an English word so how can you tack on English grammar rules to it? "Lego", derived from the Danish phrase leg godt [lɑjˀ ˈgʌd], which means "play well". So it's a verb. Verbs are not pluralized.

Timmber Jul-16-2021

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I agree because the examples are very clear and they do respond to the question. I found another reference to "LEGO" on the same matter, pluralized or not, and the conclusion was that it's up to you to do it or not, though they mainly referred to it as being mainly an adjective, not a noun. Obviously, it should not be pluralized as an adjective, not as a proper noun -the brand's name-but it can be pluralized as a common noun. I mean, when it denotes units of the brand, just like this article explains. However, it is important to notice that it should be capitalized, which is not the case with common nouns.

Al23 Mar-07-2022

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"Lego" is the plural of "Lego."
I would no more look at a bunch of branded, plastic pieces and call them "Legos" than I would look at slices of bread and call them "breads."
It's the same. It's a slice of bread, a loaf of bread; it's a piece of Lego, a Lego brick a Lego set, a pile of Lego. It's not "a bread" and it's not "a Lego," either.
And just because a bunch of people say it that way doesn't make it any more acceptable. Unless, of course, they all started saying "breads," too.

Phil B. Sep-12-2022

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LEGO is supposed to be used as an adjective, not a noun, unless referring to the brand/company itself as a whole. So the plural of "LEGO brick" is "LEGO bricks".

A LEGO brick > some LEGO bricks, or simply, some bricks.
A LEGO piece > many LEGO pieces, or simply, many pieces.
One LEGO set > two LEGO sets, or simply, two sets.
The LEGO element > the LEGO elements, or simply, the elements.
A LEGO minifigure > an army of LEGO minifigures, or simply, an army of minifigures.

The Digital Celt Feb-20-2023

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LEGO is supposed to be used as an adjective, not a noun, unless referring to the brand/company itself as a whole. So the plural of "LEGO brick" is "LEGO bricks".

A LEGO brick > some LEGO bricks, or simply, some bricks.
A LEGO piece > many LEGO pieces, or simply, many pieces.
One LEGO set > two LEGO sets, or simply, two sets.
The LEGO element > the LEGO elements, or simply, the elements.
A LEGO minifigure > an army of LEGO minifigures, or simply, an army of minifigures.

The Digital Celt Feb-20-2023

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Actually, I never thought about it, but maybe it's actually a mistake

liza566 Feb-28-2023

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