[Idiom] a (pair of) bellows

[sitifan]

1. a new clippers
2. a bellows
3. a garden shears
(Quoted from A New English Grammar, by Zhang Keli, page 21)
Are the above expressions acceptable to native speakers?

 

[GoesStation]

"A bellows" is correct. The other two are not.

Unless you've got two bellows, there's no such thing as a pair of bellows

 

[GoesStation]

Now you mention it, I remember being shocked when I saw the same Wikipedia page. It doesn't give a citation for "pair of bellows". I wonder how widespread that is.

 

[Skrej]

To me, it depends on the type of bellows. If it's what I call hand bellows (where you have use both hands), then they're like any other dual-handled tool -scissors, pliers, tongs, shears, post-hole diggers, and even grass/plant clippers - all of which we talk about having a pair of.

If I can work them with only one hand (like crank bellows) or even my feet, then they're just bellows (no pair).

All of them work best when you can get someone else to pump/crank them for you. :-D Better yet, get out your shop vac and switch it to blow. That'll get your fire roaring in a hurry and free up your arms to boot. Just make sure it's set to blow out, not suck the hot air in. Plastic melts when hot...

 

[GoesStation]

The thing with a crank is a blower, not a bellows. To me, anyway.

 

[sitifan]

In a new clippers, however, what comes to the fore is rather the unit or whole capable of the function. For example in: Then use a hawk-bill snips or a similar-shaped compound-lever snips. the suggestion is one of a tool which can do the job in ...
https://books.google.com.tw/books?i...oECAEQAg#v=onepage&q="a new clippers"&f=false

 

[sitifan]

A garden shears with a straight knife edged blade and an abutment blade 40 " against which the cutting blade beds when the shears are closed the said " blades being pivoted together on an axis offset in relation to the line of the ' ' knife edge ...
https://www.google.com/search?q="a+...UgyosBHbljAokQ_AUoAXoECAsQCA&biw=1097&bih=554

 

[GoesStation]

The examples with "shears" and "clippers" in the singular are both quite old. I'm sure I've never seen either word used that way in my life.

 

[PeterCW]

To me, it depends on the type of bellows. If it's what I call hand bellows (where you have use both hands), then they're like any other dual-handled tool -scissors, pliers, tongs, shears, post-hole diggers, and even grass/plant clippers - all of which we talk about having a pair of.

If I can work them with only one hand (like crank bellows) or even my feet, then they're just bellows (no pair).

All of them work best when you can get someone else to pump/crank them for you. :-D Better yet, get out your shop vac and switch it to blow. That'll get your fire roaring in a hurry and free up your arms to boot. Just make sure it's set to blow out, not suck the hot air in. Plastic melts when hot...

I agree, in natural English usage the two handed bellows used with a fire are a pair in line with other two handed tools. Bellows used with anything else, such as part of an accordion are just bellows.

 

[GoesStation]

I agree, in natural English usage the two handed bellows used with a fire are a pair in line with other two handed tools. Bellows used with anything else, such as part of an accordion are just bellows.

It's never occurred to me to call my fireplace bellows a pair. But you're right about accordions: each of mine has a single bellows.

I stopped for a beer on the way home from a gig one night. Halfway through, I realized I'd left my accordion in plain sight in the back of my car. I rushed out to the parking lot, but it was too late; someone had spotted it, broken a window, and thrown in two more accordions.

 

[sitifan]

I stopped for a beer on the way home from a gig one night. Halfway through, I realized I'd left my accordion in plain sight in the back of my car. I rushed out to the parking lot, but it was too late; someone had spotted it, broken a window, and thrown in two more accordions.

Why had he done that?

 

[GoesStation]

Why [STRIKE]had[/STRIKE] did he [STRIKE]done[/STRIKE] do that?

People have a tendency to throw trash in a place that's already littered. Oddly, some people think of accordions in a similar way.

My story was a joke. I've been paid to play other instruments, but not the accordion. I'm not saying I've been paid not to play it, but I'm open to offers.

 

[Rover_KE]

I stopped for a beer on the way home from a gig one night. Halfway through, I realized I'd left my accordion in plain sight in the back of my car. I rushed out to the parking lot, but it was too late; someone had spotted it, broken a window, and thrown in two more accordions.

:loling:

I did not see that coming.

 

[Tdol]

I'm not saying I've been paid not to play it, but I'm open to offers.

1960s experimental band the Red Krayola were offered their full fee to stop playing.

 

[sitifan]

:loling:

I did not see that coming.

https://griefandmourning.com/i-didnt-see-that-coming
What does "that" refer to?

 

[GoesStation]

What does "that" refer to?

Whatever was said a moment ago.

 

[emsr2d2]

In the context of post #15, it refers to the punchline of GoesStation's joke that Rover quoted.

 

[Rover_KE]

'I didn't/did not see that coming' is said when we fail to anticipate how a narrative is going to end. In GoesStation's story it made me laugh because it started off seriously and I wasn't expecting it to be a joke.

I also say it at the end of a crime story when the murderer turns out to be somebody I never for a moment suspected could be the perpetrator.