So thanks for that, and I feel what you’ve spotted might well explain why I’m constantly slipping between the two forms, sometimes changing sentences backwards and forwards.

And now that you’ve alerted me to it I’m going to pay closer attention to it on both sides of the Atlantic.

Nokia are announcing their new phone next month.

Perhaps this LEGO versus LEGOs is a variation on a similar theme in English dialect differences.

Sean

Chris - That would explain while you played with Lincoln Logs in America, in Ireland I just played with my log.

Sugar - Don’t mind me, though while I’m here I will acknowledge that Telly is a hard sell.

Sam - Yep, and that reminded me of a story in The Onion about Area Man many years ago.

But I give on the Lego(s) issue, ‘cuz I was always partial to Lincoln Logs myself.

Oh! Hi, Eolai. Didn’t see you there.

Euro (€) is another. The English plural of euro is euro. Not euros.

And while I’m bitching, there is no official abbreviation for (euro)cent although c and ct are generally acceptable. The use of the ¢ symbol is totally incorrect, even though I admit to having used it myself out of pure laziness.

Right. Nearly finished. Just to say LEGO is also used as a verb in Ireland. As in “would ya LEGO me leg, ya bollix ya”.

It’s mostly done to a name such as Miller Beer becoming Miller’s and Tesco becoming Tesco’s. I don’t think LEGOs as used in the US is meant to be the possessive form though. I like the way we even do it to things already in the possessive as in St. Stephen’s Day becoming St. Stephen’s’s [sic].

Kleenex made instant sense to me even though it never became part of my own vocabulary.

I reckon Hoover progressed from a noun to a verb here because of its aural quality in being able to sound like one.

Tim - Yep, though the Math/Maths thing is just a different way to abbreviate, whereas the LEGO/LEGOs thing is positively philosophical. And again though I never could bring myself to say “Math” I was fine with others doing so.

LEGOs irked though. Really irked.