Do you say "cereal" or "cereals" ?

As in "I had a bowl of cereal(s)". My girlfriend is insisting that everyone says "cereal", but I reckon many Brits say cereals, including me.

unless I am combining several different kinds of cereal in a single bowl, "cereal" all the way

Yeah, it's "cereal".

Cereal. (I'm British by the way)

I have never heard anyone say "a bowl of cereals". Though of course if they were mixing up different kinds of cereals that would be ok, just like "a plate of fishes".

^^^

I have never heard anyone say "a bowl of cereals".

Yeah, "a bowl of cereals" is like when you're a kid and there's less than a full bowl of like four different things left in the boxes so you combine them all.

People say cereals?

no one says that

No, no one says it.

Anymore than anyone ever asks for a glass of waters.

When I wake up from my sleeps I have a bowl of cereals.

Hammered here.

Glad I didn't bet anything

never heard "cereals" ever.

how could you be so wrong? how?

:/

I think someone tricked him somewhere along the line or something.

i blame the parents

Yeah, "a bowl of cereals" is like when you're a kid and there's less than a full bowl of like four different things left in the boxes so you combine them all.

― Darren Robocopsky (Phil D.), Wednesday, August 15, 2012 12:00 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think you have to be a kid to do this. I used to mix some granola with some kashi and some cheerios, top it off with some blueberries. I kinda miss that breakfast.

weetabix with cornflakes on top is pretty awesome, or rice krispies.

"Gotta have my bowls / gotta have ceareals" as Rebecca Black sang.

I found ONE person who agrees with me (bottom of page):

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/147172-cereal-cereals.html

This might be a BrE thing,but I would say a bowl of cereals, even for single cereal ones like cornflakes.

I have heard people with English as a second language say this. It sounds cute then.

I normally mix muesli, granola and bran flakes and still refer to it as cereal no s

hey, **I** say a bowl of cereals!

oh, wait...no, i don't. no one says that

(just goofing with you glumdalclitch, although it's true that i've never heard anyone say it before. but don't worry, i said "nip it in the butt" until i was in my mid-20s)

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/www.ign.com/5474/2011/06/sal.png

"Hey, why don'ts yous get me a bowls of cereals?"

I might start saying this now.

I say "cereal", but my breakfast every morning consists of a bowl full of milk with a single rice krispie floating in the middle.

PEOPLE WHO PLURALIZE RANDOM NOUNS ARE THE WORST KIND OF SCUM. GO DIE IN A SEA OF COMEDY MOUSTACHES.

Yikes. Who peed in your cereals?

i did (shhhh, don't tell him)

*constantly F5's "truth bombs" thread* WHAT. THE. HELL.

You don't say "anyways" too, do you?

Math

I can see cereals as a UL affectation, like the way they say "in hospital" instead of "in the hospital." Or "maths" instead of "math."

Shit, that should be UK affectation.

hahas

Was gonna say, if the Underwriters' Laboratory has got their fingers in the cereal pie too, we're not far from Borg assimilation.

I don't know, man, that Underwriters Laboratory shit is wack.

xp haha

Dudes, half the people posting on this thread are British. Glumdalclitch is just insane.

britishes, smh

Haha my mother-in-law works for UL.

Mmmmmm . . . cereal pie . . .

"affectation"?

Anymore than anyone ever asks for a glass of waters.

Guts Busters. Porridges. Weetabixxx.

Egg Benedicts.

My family says cereals, loads of ppl do

From here:

“Legos” is a common usage, though not universal, and many people don’t use it especially outside North America. However, the Lego Group, paranoid (completely unreasonably) about maintaining its trademark rights, has been very strident in trying to force people to use the English language in a way that is not natural for many. At one time, the web site at legos.com had a message saying this:

Please always refer to our products as “LEGO bricks or toys” and not “LEGOS.” By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud, and that stands for quality the world over”

hahahaa

you probably can't even get Lego bricks without some Harry Potter nonsense thrown in these days

The same person says "bi-ling-wuhl-ism" but "bi-ling-you-uhl":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0kmoCdUzlQ

(Latter around 1:40)

Harry Potters nonsense iirc xpost

Oh wow, she also says "bi-ling-you-uhl-ism" around 2:00.

I teach a business law class to paralegals and one of my favorite chapters is on trademarks because I get to tell them the rules for maintaining trademark, which includes using the brand name exactly like the Legos people want you to.

I kind of see where they're coming from. Lego (tm) is a valuable brand, but usage dilutes it. Lego brand bricks to Lego to Legos to legos and then suddenly any plastic locking bricks are legos and it's "escalator" all over again.

Photoshop also (used to?) have a thing saying 'Photoshop is not a verb, do not use it as one'. Which, to me, is a bit odd - isn't it good if your product is so ubiquitous that people use it that way?

"That looks photoshopped!" sort of accidentally gained a pejorative connotation, though. "Don't specifically mention our product name every time you want to draw someone's attention to amateurish graphic design" is a good stance. :)

It's good until you lose your trademark protection and your valuable brand name is suddenly worthless. Google is kind of in an interesting place because people use it synonymously with "web search," and right now that makes it really hard for competitors to get market share (although you do have the potential for hilarious nonsense sentences like "google this on Bing") but if "google" becomes actually synonymous with "web search" then they could lose their trademark and all search engines will call themselves "googles." Then we'll get hilarious nonsense sentences like "AltaVista releases new google!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks

if "google" becomes actually synonymous with "web search" then they could lose their trademark

Wait, this can happen? Has Kleenex's TM ever been challenged?

Man the brand equity of 'Heroin' really took a tumble.

xp It's still trademarked, but definitely in common use as a generic term for tissue. Band-aid is a good one, too. I could maybe see that losing its protection in our lifetimes.

I'm not an IP lawyer by any stretch, but I think how it works is that another bandage manufacturer will put "band-aids" on its product, and then the company that owns the trademark would sue for infringement. The other manufacturer's defense will be that "band-aid" has passed into generic use, and then the court will make a determination.

Ha, yeah, I didn't know heroin had been a brand name.

This is interesting stuff, thanks ca.

Stuff courts will consider include whether the company that owns the trademark has been actively protecting its brand. The Wikipedia page lists "Onesies" as trademarked by Gerber (I had no idea) and notes that Gerber objects to people using the singular term "onesie" so if I market Carl Agatha's Onesies and get sued for trademark infringement, this would be a good start for my defense - http://www.etsy.com/search?q=onesie&view_type=gallery&ship_to=ZZ&min=0&max=0&ref=auto1.

I think it's interesting, too! Not enough to want to practice IP law but enough to enjoy teaching a chapter on it.

http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2356&context=wmlr

Here you go:

Four ways generally are available to raise the issue whether a trademark registered with the Patent and Trademark Office has
become generic. First, in trademark infringement litigation between private firms, the defendant may allege the genericness of the trade-mark as a defense." Second, genericness may be raised affirmatively in a declaratory judgment action." Third, section 14 of the Lanham Act 9 provides that any person who believes that he is damaged by the registration of a mark on the ground that it has become generic may file a petition with the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks to cancel the registration of the mark. [This is the fourth one - ca] Moreover, this section of the Act also authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to institute cancellation proceedings on this ground.

The article is about how FTC tried to institute cancellation of Formica's trademark in 1977 and failed.

I definitely had no idea that 'escalator' was originally a trademark. And I had no idea that just anyone could produce a 'Webster's Dictionary'.

"Lego" is the name of the company that makes Legos. That's why a box containing multiple Legos still just says "Lego". The only time you use the singular is when referring to the company or a single brick, e.g., "Ah, fuck! I just stepped on a Lego!"

^ not saying it's right, but this is the American way.

― contenderizer, Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:28 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is some fucked-up logics

― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:30 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No it's not! It makes perfect sense!

No, he's right. Lego is a brand name, and if you want to be totally correct, you would say "Lego bricks" or "Lego toys" instead of Lego or Legos.

― ms. cookie (carl agatha), Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This too which just makes Legos even more correct in my mind as shorthand for Lego Bricks.

lego is just more elegant, more refined

more like more WRONG

;)

it's illogical because the toy is called Lego and the company is called The Lego Company - the toy, Lego, has pieces/parts and so therefore it makes more sense to say "a piece of Lego" rather than "a Lego" but obv this has been said 10+ times already here and elsewhere on the internet

(i am also clearly not truly upset or pissy about any of this - people say what they say, whatevs!)

again, i blame the children of America

ENBB included

when i was a small Canadian all we had to play with were sticks and generic non-branded educational toys

we still called everything Lego

you couldn't have lincoln logs because you lacked a historical political figure of character to name a toy after

wtf is a lincoln log?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Logs

here I found this on an american innovation called "the google"

xp One of the best toys ever.

http://www.creativetoy.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/LincolnLogs.jpg

(I think those are plastic. Mine were wood and better.)

I'd never heard of them either.
xpost re Lincoln logs

And I totally thought you guys were joking about Heroin (TM)!

hmmm, seems to be a more primitive form of Lego

I'd never heard of them either.
haha i know! we had them but i don't even think we had a name for them. maybe "log cabin pieces" <- how exciting!

had lincoln logs, though they ran a distinct second to legos. every aspect of lego (collective noun) was wonderful. the perfect smoothness, regularity and color of the bricks; their satisfying tooth resistance; the fact that they had dedicated wheel, window, door and roof pieces; the flat little transparent ones that were supposed to represent emergency vehicle lights; the many desirable sets which i might have enjoyed had i been a better child.

my mom has a picture of me all dressed up for my first day of school, wearing jacket, shorts and cap, big smile, holding a brand new box of legos given to me to celebrate the occasion. moments later i would hit my friend michael frejetsky on the head with my legos, though this went sadly undocumented. i do remember the sudden, catastrophic spread of bricks and concern.

every aspect of lego (collective noun) was wonderful. the perfect smoothness, regularity and color of the bricks; their satisfying tooth resistance; the fact that they had dedicated wheel, window, door and roof pieces; the flat little transparent ones that were supposed to represent emergency vehicle lights; the many desirable sets which i might have enjoyed had i been a better child.

...the excruciating pain when you stepped on one

those motherfuckers

Oh my god you would think you stepped on a rusty caltrop. I mean they basically are caltrops, so....

i wonder if anyone has ever died from stepping on a lego

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Caltrop.jpg/220px-Caltrop.jpg

you got conned, laurel

ask your friend mr. frejetsky, he may have some hopes along that line

i do wonder what the frejetskys' actual name was. "frejetsky" was just as close as i could come @ age five.

free jetski

is your past as related to ilx just fabrications based on a bulletin board, ala Usual Suspects?

a cat with several post-it notes tbh

How did I get conned? I know what a caltrop is? Legos (SEE?!) have uncommonly sharp corners for a children's toy, and their 3-dimentional nature means at least 4 pointy bits are always pointing up!

Hmm, dimensional, I guess. Sorry, contacts are beginning to fog over and I'm typing without hardly seeing anything.