
This is one of those small, annoying grammar points that even very advanced learners of English can get wrong. When you have a phrase that contains an amount, such as a price in pounds, it can be difficult to know if you should add an “s” or not (pound / pounds).
Look at these examples:
a. I bought a seventy pound jacket.
b. I bought a jacket for seventy pounds.
A typical mistake that a lot of learners make is to say: “I bought a *seventy pounds jacket”.
So, what’s the difference?
In sentence a the phrase seventy pound is like an adjective. You could replace seventy pound with the word expensive:
I bought an expensive jacket.
So, if the phrase could be replaced by an adjective you DON’T add an -s.
In sentence b the phrase seventy pounds is like a noun. You could replace this with another phrase containing a noun:
I bought a jacket for a lot of money.
If the phrase is like a noun, you DO add the -s.
Here are some more examples:
A forty dollar bag.
Hannah spent forty dollars on a bag.
A three hundred euro ticket.
My ticket cost three hundred euros.
We also use this pattern to talk about time.
Look at these examples:
A two-minute video.
This video lasts two minutes.
A four hour flight.
The flight took four hours.
A three day course.
The course is three days long.
Note that we often use a hypen (-) with the adjective-like phrase (without the -s):
a seventy-pound jacket
a three-day course
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