arrival gate or arrivals gate

[allthewayanime]

I know that 'arrival gate' is a compound noun and the first noun is usually in the singular form, but recently I've come across 'arrivals gate' is this one also correct?

 

[5jj]

I would have gone for 'arrivals gate', but OneLook: General dictionary sites does not back me up. Eight dictionaries have an entry for 'arrival gate', none has one for 'arrivals gate'.

COCA has 11 sentences with 'arrival gate', five with 'arrivals gate'.

So, go for 'arrival gate'.

 

[allthewayanime]

Thank you.One last question, while visiting a friend of mine at the hospital I came across the target 'wait room', shouldn't it be waiting room?

 

[bhaisahab]

Thank you.One last question, while visiting a friend of mine at the hospital I came across the target 'wait room', shouldn't it be waiting room?

It's usually "waiting room".

 

[konungursvia]

It should be waiting room. As for arrivals gate, tradition speaks for the singular when a noun modifies a noun, or forms with it a compound noun. In BrE, it is becoming fairly common, however, to accept plural nouns like "arrivals gate." AmE is more conservative on this matter, and such things sound very unnatural to most speakers here.

While living in Hong Kong, I saw loads and loads of examples such as: "examinations schedule" or "books room"; many were just errors due to speakers of another language, such as Cantonese, but after a while, I noticed that quite a few of these oddities (to my ears) were in fact penned by expat Brits.

I've asked about this once or twice on these forums, and can confirm that many BrE speakers are less particular about this phenomenon than AmE speakers. Things change.

 

[bhaisahab]

It should be waiting room. As for arrivals gate, tradition speaks for the singular when a noun modifies a noun, or forms with it a compound noun. In BrE, it is becoming fairly common, however, to accept plural nouns like "arrivals gate." AmE is more conservative on this matter, and such things sound very unnatural to most speakers here.

While living in Hong Kong, I saw loads and loads of examples such as: "examinations schedule" or "books room"; many were just errors due to speakers of another language, such as Cantonese, but after a while, I noticed that quite a few of these oddities (to my ears) were in fact penned by expat Brits.

I've asked about this once or twice on these forums, and can confirm that many BrE speakers are less particular about this phenomenon than AmE speakers. Things change.

To me "arrivals" sounds perfectly natural. I am very surprised, though, that any English person would write "examinations schedule" or "books room", even somebody without much education.

 

[konungursvia]

It may be that because many airports have large signs reading "ARRIVALS" and that because people call these gates, the term "arrivals gate" has become fairly common; it doesn't sound that bad to me either.

But generally such constructions irk my ear, and come from British speakers.

I agree that my two examples are not well chosen. I couldn't think of any of the borderline cases in which Brits were definitely the authors, i.e. which Brits find natural, but which sound odd here. There are quite a number of these, though, I feel sure.

 

[5jj]

To me "arrivals" sounds perfectly natural. I am very surprised, though, that any English person would write "examinations schedule" or "books room", even somebody without much education.

Interesting. 'Examinations schedule' seems possible to me, but 'books room'? - Never!

 

[SoothingDave]

It may be that because many airports have large signs reading "ARRIVALS" and that because people call these gates, the term "arrivals gate" has become fairly common; it doesn't sound that bad to me either.

Arrivals gate sounds OK to me, for the reason you state.

 

[Rover_KE]

Arrivals gate sounds OK to me, for the reason you state.

And to me, too.

But Departures gate sounds wrong.

Rover

 

[5jj]

But Departures gate sounds wrong.

I have to say that it sounds fine to me - perhaps for a similar reason to that given by konungursvia for 'arrivals'.

 

[emsr2d2]

In my 15 years working at an airport, I actually never noticed that we always referred to the Arrivals Hall, Arrivals Gate etc, but the Departure Lounge and Departure Gate in the singular.

However, if we weren't specifying the particular area of the airport, just the general purpose, then they were simpy referred to as "Arrivals" and "Departures".

I always assumed that the Arrivals Hall was so called because it was a large hall containing all the arrivals - that is the word used to describe the people who are arriving from somewhere else. They are called "arrivals" - please note that that may not be the dictionary definition but I can assure you that at airports up and down the country, that is what the airport staff call arriving passengers. It is indeed strange that we did not use the term "Departures" in the same way.