question

[Taka]

Boy meets girl.

Why not "Boys meet girls. or "A boy meets a girl."???

It sounds strange, but I've seen many of them.

[Mister Micawber]

Idiomatic, like 'long time no see'. A description of the classic confrontation. . . or enamoration: Boy meets girl.

[Taka]

An idiom Really?

I didn't know that...

[Wai_Wai]

Correct me if wrong.
The statement should be problematic since it is grammatically wrong.

But it can still be seen in several occasions:
- the heading in a newspaper (reason: to save space)
- in a song (reason: rhyme, musical, pleasant to eye etc.)
- conversation (reason: people are lazy :) )

I think the person who said it was an idiom use this word loosely. They might wish to say it is just a casual statement like "long time no see". Grammatically incoorect for sure. Still acceptable in some sitautions.

[Tdol]

Idioms often cheat on grammar.

[Natalie27]

Boy meets girl.

Why not "Boys meet girls. or "A boy meets a girl."???

It sounds strange, but I've seen many of them.

To me it sounds more like a cliche. "Boy meets girl" should translate into "well, you know, it's one of those stories/situation/plots / fairy tales/ whatever/ where a boy meets a girl. We can usually expect a typical outcome of "boy meets girl". You have seen one of those stories - you've pretty well seen them all.

[Casiopea]

Boy meets girl.

Why not "Boys meet girls. or "A boy meets a girl."???

It sounds strange, but I've seen many of them.

boy and girl are used as terms, not as nouns with actual referents (i.e., Mark, a boy, and Mary, a girl), per se:

Boy (i.e., a term used to refer to young males) meets girl (i.e., a term used to refer to young females). Similarly, Man (humankind)meets world; Boykind meets girlkind.

All the best,

[Tdol]

Man bites dog.

[Casiopea]

Man bites dog.

Saw it on the evening news already. They said the dog would be OK and that no charges would filed as long as Bush gives the squeaky-toy back. :wink: