Half a pound/A half pound

[Barman]

In the sentences below which one is natural?

1) I have bought half a pound of bread.

2) I have bought a half pound of bread.

 

[Rover_KE]

Where I live, we don't buy bread by weight, so change 'bread' to 'cheese' and they're both natural — #1 being rather more common, in my experience.

 

[SoothingDave]

I agree. Half a pound would be more likely, but both are possible and natural.

 

[emsr2d2]

We rarely use "a half pound" in BrE.

 

[Rover_KE]

... and when we do, it's usually used adjectivally.

Ali Katt bought a half pound box of liquorice allsorts and a half pound bag of jelly babies.

 

[Skrej]

Where I live, we don't buy bread by weight

Ah, but what about pound cake?:eyes:

 

[tedmc]

... and when we do, it's usually used adjectivally.

Ali Katt bought a half pound box of liquorice allsorts and a half pound bag of jelly babies.

As a compound adjective, shouldn't "half-pound" be hyphenated?

 

[emsr2d2]

As a compound adjective, shouldn't "half-pound" be hyphenated?

I would hyphenate it.

 

[emsr2d2]

Where I live, we don't buy bread by weight

Ah, but what about pound cake?:eyes:

For the benefit of learners:
1. That's cake, not bread.
2. It got its name because the original recipe called for a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs! That would result in a cake that weighs a lot more than a pound!

 

[Tdol]

We rarely use "a half pound" in BrE.

But that is not to say that we don't. Maybe it's regional, but it sounds OK to me, and not necessarily adjectivally. #2 sounds OK.

 

[probus]

For the benefit of learners:
1. That's cake, not bread.
2. It got its name because the original recipe called for a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs! That would result in a cake that weighs a lot more than a pound!

If I remember my physics correctly, the law of conservation of mass says that cake would weigh the same as the sum of its ingredients, so not less than four pounds.

 

[jutfrank]

If I remember my physics correctly, the law of conservation of mass says that cake would weigh the same as the sum of its ingredients, so not less than four pounds.

Remember your thermodynamics! Cooking would result in a significant loss of mass from evaporation.

 

[probus]

But the dry ingredients and eggs alone were four pounds. There would also be liquid mass to make the batter. I stand by my estimate of at least four pounds.

 

[Tdol]

It's still a hefty cake even with the water loss.

 

[Tarheel]

Nowadays they're not even a whole pound.

 

[Rover_KE]

Topic drift.

Thread closed.