There are four thes and two ins in the above sentence.

[thes]

Plurals when counting words as nouns

Consider the sentence "The Judge has ruled that in the case of the stolen muffin, the suspect is guilty and will spend time in jail."

What is the correct way of referring to the word counts:

There are four thes and two ins in the above sentence.
There are four the's and two in's in the above sentence.
There are four "the"s and two "in"s in the above sentence.
Something else?

Thanks.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you had helpfully numbered your sentences, I would say that only #3 is usable. However, what I would actually say is "In the sentence above, "the" appears four times and "in" [appears] twice".

Note that I have improved your thread title. Titles should be unique, relevant only to your thread, and include at least one of the sentences you're asking us to look at. The subject matter and your main question should appear only in the main body of your post.

 

[teechar]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.
Is the info you provided on your profile correct?

What is the correct way of referring to the word counts?

Try:

There are four instances of "the" and two (instances) of "in" in the above sentence.