Is foot acceptable in plural height?

[Bewlay Bros]

If somebody asked me how tall I am, I would say

"I am six foot one (6"1)"

However looking at it I am inclined to think 6 feet one may actually be the better option.

Can anybody please clarify?

[4GS]

How can we clarify? no-one on Answerbank has ever met you, tell you what, I'll grab me tape measure and measure you up, simply send me yous address via the IM facility on the beta site

Don't panic I'm only kidding, I believe the correct way would be to say "six foot one"

[steandtracey]

would the correct way not be six feet one inch and we have just got used to saying it as six foot one

[Quizmonster]

When preceded by a numeral-word...as 'six' in the example quoted...the word 'foot' has been treated as a plural for almost the past millennium. Plenty of time to "get used to it", I'd say!

[Bewlay Bros]

QM are both foot and feet acceptable then in my example?

[Goodsoulette]

Plural of foot, is feet or foot. If its to express a nit of measure,eg your height you use foot when its used to exress distance you use foot eg the park is 100 feet from my house.

[Goodsoulette]

Balls that up...

unit of measure is foot

distance is feet.

[Tichfield]

"foot" is singular. "feet" is the plural of "foot".

So you should only use "foot" if it is "one foot".

As in "It is one foot ten inches tall"

If it is two or more then you should use "feet".

As in "it is two feet ten inches tall".

[Bewlay Bros]

But surely height (which you refer to as "measure") is the same as distance?? The top of my head is 6 foot one inch distance from the ground, no?

[figure]

More than one foot is Feet.

Correct grammar would be six feet (6")

[figure]

that should be 6' not 6"

[Goodsoulette]

Figure trust me there are rules regarding this and mine are right lol

If you were to say the top of my head is 6 feet 1 inch from the floor that would be expressing a distance.

Your height however is a unit of measure thats why its 6foot 1.

[Tichfield]

No! "Six foot one inch" is not correct use of English.

It should be "Six feet one inch".

[Goodsoulette]

Wardy, there are more rules to this than meets the eye, its I am 6 foot if you say tall after it, it becomes I am 6 feet tall.


Other than that though

" In Standard English, foot and feet have their own rules when they are used in combination with numbers to form expressions for units of measure: a four-foot plank, but not a four feet plank; also correct is a plank four feet long (or, less frequently, four foot long). When foot is combined with numbers greater than one to refer to simple distance, however, only the plural feet is used: a ledge 20 feet (not foot) away. At that speed, a car moves 88 feet (not foot) in a second."

[Quizmonster]

When I said earlier that, when preceded by a numeral-word, 'foot' could be used effectively as a plural, it wasn't just me making it up...it came directly from The Oxford English Dictionary - the 'bible' of English word-usage. One of the earliest quotes the dictionary uses in illustration of this fact dates back to 1205.
The plain fact is that saying, "I am six foot one" has been perfectly acceptable for centuries. In fact, I cannot imagine anyone saying it any other way, although "I am six feet one" would not actually be wrong.
We are all aware that the standard plural of 'foot' is 'feet' but, in English, usage is king and if we've employed a usage for nearly 1,000 years, it's fine to go on doing so.

If you've arranged to call on someone and you go and knock on their door, they may well call out, "Who is it?" You are perfectly entitled to reply, "It's me", even though the 'correct' answer would be "It is I." Why? Because that's what virtually everybody - with the possible exception of a professor of linguistics - does say!

Stick with "six foot" in these circumstances, BB...trust me.

[Bewlay Bros]

To be honest I don't really care. I say I am 1.85m anyway!!!!!





Only joking,

Imperial ALL THE WAY!!!!

I never realised it was so complicated.

But as I said earlier to QM, are both equally acceptable?

[Bewlay Bros]

Thank you QM, we crossed.

[fredpuli47]

Now let's get started on "twelve stone" or "twelve stones" ! Scots seem to say 'stones' but down in the South we say 'stone'
Perhaps 'six foot' and ' six feet' are said in different places too.

[Quizmonster]

Well, I'm a Scot, Fred and here's what I would say as regards 'stone(s)'...If I weighed exactly twelve stones and someone asked what I weighed, I'd say, "Twelve stones." However, if I weighed that number of stones plus, say, four pounds, I'd say, "Twelve stone four" and certainly not "Twelve stones four."

[jno]

figure, you haven't been watching Spinal Tap, have you?

Anyway, you're a six-footer. There's no such word as six-feeter. And Quizmonster and Goodsoulette are right about why. Feet is generally used as the plural of the things on the end of your legs, and of distances. But foot is more common when describing people's height. You could</> say you're six feet tall and everyone would understand you, so it's not wrong. But I think six foot is the more common expression (and to me, six foot tall is ok too).

However it's 1.85 metres, not metre.

And I'd never say twelve stones whether there were pounds after it or not. Stones to me are little rocks. But I'm not Scottish.

[jno]

bleah, sorry I forgot to switch off the italics