Contents/content/contains? (losing my marbles!)

Question

0 OK, with a jar full of marbles you could write "The contents of the this jar are marbles."  Contents sounds plural, but what if you only have one marble in the jar? Then you have to say, "The contents of the jar IS? or ARE? one marble." ??? 02br00I can't say "The content of the jar is a marble." (can I?); should I just turn it around and say "The jar contains one marble."? 0-

Miche · Accepted Answer

0 Hi, Jeffin, 02br
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00I would say the following are correct: 02br
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001. The contents of the jar are marbles. (contents in the plural, the verb agrees with contents) 02br
002. The contents of the jar are a/one marble. (same as above) 02br
003. The content of the jar is marbles. (content in the singular, the verb agrees with content) 02br
004. The content of the jar is a/one marble. (same as above) 02br
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00The one that sounds best to me is "The jar contains marbles / a/one marble." 02br
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00Cheers 0-

JeffinJapan · Answer

0 Thanks very much for your advice Miche. 02br
00I was just talking to another friend of mine about this and he said: 02br
00"Content, on the other hand, refers to something like subject matter -- what's being said. References to the data on a disc also fit into this category. The content of a DVD disc might be a movie, or a song. This is "media content." 02br
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00The tricky part is that, sometimes, you simply want to talk about everything that is contained on a disc. In that case, it should be contents. For example, if you hit the wrong button on your recordable disc recorder, you might erase the entire contents of the disc. Here, you're talking about wiping out all of the little bits on the disc. You're not really referring to what they mean (i.e., their subject matter). " 02br
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00While I also feel "The jar contains marbles / a/one marble." is clearly the easiest to understand, I was wondering if, given his distinction between contents and content, saying "The content of the jar is marbles" would be gramatically correct? 0-

Miche · Answer

0 There might be some difference in usage from region to region or country to country. Webster's "content" entry gives the following examples: 02br
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00(Often plural) Empty out the contents of your purse. The content of this can is seven ounces of tuna fish. 02br
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00Probably a native speaker will be more exhaustive on the issue. 050010id7

Contents/content/contains? (losing my marbles!)

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