Two dozen of eggs acceptable?
According to Usage Books published in England, "two dozen of eggs" is wrong. How about in American English? Is it acceptable or is it wrong as well? Is there any reference that tells that the expression is wrong?
Top answer
This is a question about usage rather than about grammar. If you check this in the Google Ngram Viewer, you'll see that 'two dozen of eggs' was used until about 1860 in America, and it all but died out 100 years after that, so virtually no one is using it anymore. 'two dozen eggs' began to be used around 1830 and far surpassed the alternate form by the 1860s.
- This is a question about usage rather than about grammar.
- If you check this in the Google Ngram Viewer, you'll see that 'two dozen of eggs' was used until about 1860 in America, and it all but died out 100 years after that, so virtually no one is using it anymore.
- 'two dozen eggs' began to be used around 1830 and far surpassed the alternate form by the 1860s.
- Today you will almost never see the old form with 'of'.
- So in order to conform to current usage, you will have to give up expressions like 'two dozen of eggs'.
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This is a question about usage rather than about grammar. If you check this in the Google Ngram Viewer, you'll see that 'two dozen of eggs' was used until about 1860 in America, and it all but died out 100 years after that, so virtually no one is using it anymore. 'two dozen eggs' began to be used around 1830 and far surpassed the alternate form by the 1860s. Today you will almost never see
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