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a pair of cars



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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a pair of cars #1 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 0:13 am   a pair of cars
 

Hello Alan, Mister Micawber, Beeesneees, Mordant, Esl_Expert and other native English speakers,

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http://tinyurl.com/28hug8h
Rescuers dug through debris of the three-story underground garage in Hackensack, N.J., to reach a pair of cars believed to hold people trapped by Friday's collapse.
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Does a pair of cars simply mean "two cars"?
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a pair of cars #2 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 0:20 am   a pair of cars
 

Yes. It's unusual to see it written like that. I would normally expect to see it written as 'to reach two cars', as they aren't a part of a set.
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a pair of cars #3 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 0:25 am   a pair of cars
 

Bev, American journalism seems to like the word "pair" for any two similar things. You may see a "pair of homicides," although they may be totally unrelated.
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a pair of cars #4 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 0:35 am   a pair of cars
 

Thank you, B and Mordant.

If one of the damaged cars is a RV, is the other a RV too?
Tofu
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a pair of cars #5 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 0:38 am   a pair of cars
 

No, Tofu. That may be true, but it doesn't have to be. It's "an RV" because the initialism "RV" begins with a vowel sound.
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a pair of cars #6 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:25 am   a pair of cars
 

Mordant wrote:
American journalism seems to like the word "pair" for any two similar things.
I'll second that idea. And it seems sports writers are especially fond of talking about things such as a pair of homers, a pair of interceptions, a pair of birdies, etc.
.
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a pair of cars #7 (permalink) Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:08 am   a pair of cars
 

Thanks Mordant and Amy.
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