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Why is 'headquarters' always plural?



 
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Why is 'headquarters' always plural? #1 (permalink) Sat Jun 17, 2006 14:35 pm   Why is 'headquarters' always plural?
 

Hello my friends, does anyone of you happen to know why the word headquarters does not have a singular form? Yesterday one a German asked me that question and told him I would turn to you to find the answer.

Thanks in advance,
Torsten
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Why is 'headquarters' always plural? #2 (permalink) Sat Jun 17, 2006 16:32 pm   Why is 'headquarters' always plural?
 

Hi Torsten

Headquarters is always written with an S (probably) for the same reason we write all of the following with an S:
- living quarters
- sleeping quarters
- bachelor quarters
- general quarters
- close quarters

Unfortunately, I don't know why any of those are written with an S either. Cool

Maybe somebody else will know...

I've often told my students to think of the "quarters" in headquarters in the same sense as "offices" since the headquarters of a company is a place with a lot of offices. But that doesn't always work well since there is also the expression "head office." Crying or Very sad

But you could also look at it similarly to the way the word accommodations is used.

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Why is 'headquarters' always plural? #3 (permalink) Sun Jun 18, 2006 7:59 am   Why is 'headquarters' always plural?
 

Quote:
accommodations

and barracks? Smile
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Headquarters... #4 (permalink) Fri Jun 23, 2006 19:47 pm   Headquarters...
 

I think, accommodation is more often used than accommodations. But barracks is similar to headquarters although you would not say a headquarters but you do say a baracks as well as a crossroads.

I'm quite sure there some type of pattern here...
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Why is 'headquarters' always plural? #5 (permalink) Fri Jun 23, 2006 21:33 pm   Why is 'headquarters' always plural?
 

Hi Torsten

I think accommodations is probably used less often in British English than in American English when you're talking about your lodgings. Laughing

But I'm also very curious about a possible explanation of why headquarters is always plural. I get this question on a regular basis and I've never been able to provide a "good" explanation.

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Headquarters... #6 (permalink) Sat Jun 24, 2006 16:50 pm   Headquarters...
 

My diictionary gives just following examples of words of the kind - formally plural but used as singular (some are uncountable):
barracks, crossroads, headquarters, means, news, oats, series, species, works
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Why is 'headquarters' always plural? #7 (permalink) Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:36 am   Why is 'headquarters' always plural?
 

Quote:
barracks, crossroads, headquarters, means, news, oats, series, species, works


Hi Pamela

The words you've listed have additional differences. Although they all end with an S and are seen as single things, the usage of the verb isn't always singular. For example, news is always used with a singular verb, but headquarters can take either a singular or plural verb.

To talk about the place where a company's main offices are, you'd usually hear the plural verb:
"The headquarters are located in New York."

You'd be more likely to hear 'headquarters' used with a singular verb when referring to what the people who work there do (at least in AmE Laughing):
"Headquarters is pressuring us to reduce costs."

Barracks, means and works are also used with both singular and plural forms of a verb.

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Methinks it's #8 (permalink) Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:16 am   Methinks it's
 

from dictionary.com

quarters

n : housing available for people to live in; "he found quarters for his family"; "I visited his bachelor quarters" [syn: living quarters]

so if headquarters is a compound word built of head and quarters, it denotes the main place that is described by the word, "quarters" meaning housing, but is not necessarily more than one place.
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