grammatical number - In "Winnie the Pooh", Why isn't the Hundred Acre Wood plural?


When I read some of these Winnie the Pooh stories to my kids at night, the place where the story takes place is the Hundred Acre Wood, not Hundred Acre Woods.


Why is that?



Answer



Winnie the Pooh was written by an English author, and thus follows the British English usage that wood is both plural and singular.


Apparently woods is an American construction. In fact, I can't verify that woods is a really a word, but it certainly sounds like one to my American ear.


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