Fork vs Forks
 

Ok, I've notice alot of you say forks, which I don't understand. It's a single fork, not mulitple forks. If you ride down a path and it splits you call it a fork in the road, if you hold an eating utensil in your hand it's called a fork not a forks. So where does this forks on a mountain bike come from? The fork splits once from the steerer tube so there for it's a fork. I hope this didn't come across as bad as it sounds, I'm just curious how alot of you got to forks as apposed to fork.

:beer:

Hmmm, when you come to that fork in the road, do you take the left fork or the right fork? So, there are two forks in one.

Honestly, I don't know the grammatically correct form of this word. Never really thought about it.

If anyone knows the correct grammar please fill us in.

L8R

See that is a good point a view. I didn't think of that

But for me I never say right or left fork, i say right or left side.

Please more info..haha.

:D :beer:

For me its fork :)...but hey I don't care. The only thing that bugs me is when people call the fork a shock. Just doesn't seem right :D

forks, been saying it this way for 20 plus years. I've hear all the arguments and refuse to say "fork".

although there are times, when using "forks" in a sentence, that it sounds strange, then I use "fork" (I can't think of an example right now)

I wear pants but they are only one piece. I don't call them pant.

I really don't care what other people say, to me, they are forks.

Fork is singular, for example: Tuning fork. “The fork on my bike is blue.” Saying, “the forks on my bike are blue” is sloppy English. Forks I guess is the collective form.

Sheldon “linguist” Brown writes in his dictionary:
Fork
Usually refers to the front fork, the part of the frame set that holds the front wheel. The fork is attached to the main frame by the headset. The fork consists of the two blades that go down to hold the axle, the fork crown, and the steerer.
The term "rear fork" is sometimes used to refer to the part of the frame that holds the rear wheel.

Class dismissed, have a great weekend!
Gordon p

no you cant choose from the right or left fork when there is a fork in the road. Neither one of those sides is a fork. THey are just sides. you wouldnt call each of the prongs on a fork(the utensil) a fork would you? they are just prongs. The only way you can say forks, is if there are actualy two or more forks. I have yet to see a bike with two or more forks on it. The only other time it would be correct is if it is a conjunction that somone left the apostrophe off of. Like my forks broken. Meaning my fork is broken. However in this case it would be fork's, and not forks.

I agree with PNJ, I don't wear pant, I wear PANTS. Even if gramatically incorrect, I think I'll continue to call them FORKS!

L8R

you would call them forks, if there were more than one of them. Them, also refers to multiples. You would call it a fork, singular. You would call them forks, plural. As for pants, your right it has been miss used so long people find it wierd when it is used correctly, however you would say "I spilled somthing on my pant leg." and not "I spilled somthing on my pants leg"

Is it then incorrect to say, "I've spilled something on my pants."?

Not trying to be difficult, I find this topic one of the most amusing in awhile!

L8R

I agree, it is keeping me entertained. The difficulty with pants is you would reffer to them as a pair of pants, which just makes them confusing. Just like scisiors. You have a pair of scisiors. Now I dont know why these things are called pairs because pair reffers to two things that go together. Perhaps its because a pair of pants has two legs, and a pair of scisiors has two blades. So if you were reffering to a pair of things, then obviously its plural, being that there are two of them.

You wouldnt however ask somone to hand you that pair of forks. Perhaps because a fork does not by definition reffer to a given number of splits. Most things reffered to as forks have two, and in the case of a bike there are two, but the utensil has 4. A pitch fork can have a dozzen.

Panties?

Shorts?



This is fun!

Does anyone notice bikers are anal about the weirdest things sometimes :)

It always seemed to me like it was mostly a King's English vs Americanese thing: "forks" in the UK, "fork" in the US.

The American usage is, of course, the correct one. :D

A "fork" has a "leg," a "branch," or a "tine," depending on what sort of fork it is. Things can have multiple forks, but it's not a fork if it only has one leg, branch, or tine.

Well, maybe if it's a broken fork.

I actually had a flat once caused by a puncture from a one-tined fork laying in the road.

If it'd had two tines, it still would have been one fork, and my tire still would have been forked up.

RichC

Think of it like this, if you split the fork in two you would have two struts like the C'dale lefty.

So when refering to a bicycle fork technicaly the proper word would be fork since there is only one unless you have some weird design.:D

:beer:

what about handlebars? it's just one bar.

"dude, I bent my bars"

I really can't argue about "correct" grammer seeing as I failed english class more than once, but it's still fun.

:D

According to Webster's dictionary:
Fork - an instrument of greatly varying size with a handle at one end and two or more pointed prongs at the other.

So obviously the fork on a bicycle is considered one peice, not two that are attached. Wheras you were two pants because a pant is just one leg.

Not that I really care about this crap, it's just amusing. Anybody need a subject for their doctoral thesis?

Scissor or scissors?

L8R

If you only had one scissor, it would be more so a blade. You need two. Thats why its called a pair of scissors.

Sheesh.


I say whatever flows with the post best.

reminds me about anothre forum I'm on. people say they're going to put headers ona 4 cyl. car. one header for 4 cyl, 2 headers for 6 and 8. lol the argument continues...