questions about counting sth

[enydia]

Hi, everyone.

I have some questions about counting sth.

1
What is the meaning of "some/few/several/many dozen sth"? Is it the same as "some/few/several/many dozens of sth"? For example, "some dozen eggs" = "some dozens of eggs"?
Similarly, how many are the eggs when someone says "many hundred eggs" or "many hundreds of eggs"?

2
Can I say "several dozen of eggs"?

Thanks in advance.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by enydia

Hi, everyone.

I have some questions about counting sth.

1
What is the meaning of "some/few/several/many dozen sth"? Is it the same as "some/few/several/many dozens of sth"? For example, "some dozen eggs" = "some dozens of eggs"?
Similarly, how many are the eggs when someone says "many hundred eggs" or "many hundreds of eggs"?

2
Can I say "several dozen of eggs"?

Thanks in advance.

As for #1, several dozen something is not the same as several dozens of someting:

two dozen eggs = 24 eggs exactly
several dozen eggs - could be 36/48/50 etc. eggs

You can't say two dozen(s) of eggs or several dozen(s) of eggs here.
Again, many hundred eggs is not the same as many hundreds of eggs .

As for #2, see above.

Remember:

dozens/hundreds/thousands/millions etc. of something is a lot of something, and can't be preceded with a number of quantity.

[enydia]

Originally Posted by engee30

As for #1, several dozen something is not the same as several dozens of someting:

two dozen eggs = 24 eggs exactly
several dozen eggs - could be 36/48/50 etc. eggs

You can't say two dozen(s) of eggs or several dozen(s) of eggs here.
Again, many hundred eggs is not the same as many hundreds of eggs .

As for #2, see above.

Remember:

dozens/hundreds/thousands/millions etc. of something is a lot of something, and can't be preceded with a number of quantity.

Thank you for your reply.

But I am still confused.

According to your point of view, I can't say some hundreds of eggs?
But I find some examples of some hundreds of by google, and one of them is "... some hundreds of yards from where we lay, ..." (Conan Doyle, The Lost World) I don't know the exact length of some hundreds of yards and whether the length is the same as some hundred yards.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by enydia

Thank you for your reply.

But I am still confused.

Here's my simple explanation (I do hope it is so):

[you go to a shop to buy eggs; you say:]
Can I have half a dozen eggs, please? if you want to buy only 6 eggs
Can I have a dozen eggs, please? if you want to buy 12 eggs
Can I have two dozen eggs, please? if you want to buy as many as 24 eggs

In the last sentence above, you can't use either the plural dozens or the singular dozen followed by of.

However, you could say:

Can I have some/a few/several dozen eggs, please? if you wanted to buy more than just a dozen eggs; it could well be 36/48 or more, or less, but always a quantity of something times 12

[once again you go to a shop; you say:]
Can I have (some/a few/several) dozens of eggs, please? if you want to buy a lot of eggs, without saying exactly how many; you can omit the words in brackets, unlike in the sentence above. You would get the exact quantity on the invoice and it might well be 100/1000 etc. eggs so that you knew what you were going to pay for.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by enydia

Thank you for your reply.

But I am still confused.

According to your point of view, I can't say some hundreds of eggs? You can actually.
But I find some examples of some hundreds of by google, and one of them is "... some hundreds of yards from where we lay, ..." (Conan Doyle, The Lost World) I don't know the exact length of some hundreds of yards (because some hundreds of yards is obscure and means a lot of yards) and whether the length is the same as some hundred yards. (No, it's not the same - some hundred yards means about a hundred yards in length)

[enydia]

Originally Posted by engee30

Thank you very much

[RonBee]

a few dozen eggs
several dozen eggs
two dozen eggs
three dozen eggs
dozens of eggs