Pants - pantalón o pantalones?? Usage posting

Question

In my entry for the Word of the Day "cubierto", Annierats made an interesting suggestion about whether to use pantalones rather than the word pantalón which I used. Before I wrote my sentence, I had the same question in my mind, so I looked on my favorite dictionary site wordreference.com to get some advice. Here is a link to the discussion there:

Pantalón/pantalones See Iforestier's entry

I also searched this forum and there was a brief entry back in 2009:

pantalon-pantalones posted by "not-been-seen-since" Leah

The conclusion is that both are used interchangeably. I think the confusion for English speakers is that we only use the plural for this word. I don't know if Spanish is influenced by English usage but, being of equal ability in French, I know the word used in French is always singular.

My personal conclusion is that I'm not going to fret about it anymore. Whichever one comes out: "pantalón / pantalones" is the one I'm using. I just need to make sure any adjective used with it agrees in number and masculine gender.

Good post! I always learn something from you. - rac1, May 25, 2014

Thanks, Annie. I hope this gets read by those who need it. - Jubilado, May 25, 2014

Thanks Jubilado, you're right. Good point. I just always thought of them in the plural, but clearly this was wrong. Thanks for finding out. - annierats, May 25, 2014

Always interesting to read your posts Jubilado. Merci bien. - britisk, May 25, 2014

Thanks to britisk for the comment. I read your profile, interesting life! - Jubilado, May 25, 2014

Answer 1

Great question, Jubilado. I admit that I just thought it was always in the plural and didn't check. The English is always the trousers or a pair of trousers. In Swedish we have : byxor ( plural) , ett par byxor ( a pair of trousers), but you can say: Jag ska ta på mig byxan ) I'm going to put on my trouser ( in the singular) . But we usually use the plural too, but with the definite article normally. This is of course not to do with Spanish, but it's interesting,

Thank you! And as for pants, they occur only in America, we just have underpants over here!

Trousers, right? And "Tak" for the Swedish reference! - Jubilado, May 25, 2014

Answer 2

Thanks, good post.

I believe "Pantalón (pantalones)" was adopted from English. Looking at the roots may help explain the plural in English.

What do you think?

www.dailywritingtips.com/one-pant-two-pants/

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. - rac1, May 26, 2014

Andre, thanks for the link and the article. So I've learned the meaning of eponym and that "pants" seems to come from an Italian person name and finally that I too am old enough to remember (the obsolete) pantleg. - Jubilado, May 26, 2014

Interesting, Andre. - annierats, May 26, 2014

Answer 3

This may explain the confusion.

They were originally made as two separate legs , almost leggings , so that when

They became joined at the waist with a covering of the jolly parts they were still

referred to as two items , therefore plural - "Pantaloons " = "Pantalone" "Pantalón"

Noun

pantaloons (plural only)

An article of clothing covering each leg separately,

that covers the area from the waist to the ankle.

I think you're fright because we often say ' a pair of trousers'. - annierats, May 26, 2014

Right, I mean, not a fright. - annierats, May 26, 2014