singular or plural?

Question

here is my question, when you want to ask if they have something you want in a shop(t shirts,skirts,,,,or anything),you use plural,,,like " do you have skirts? do you have black t shirts? but when you already find something you want,but you want a bigger/smaller one,why do you use singular??

like,,"do you have a bigger/smaller one? i mean ,,why not "do you have bigger/smaller ones?"

and the clerks also use singular,,,like" we have a new one,,,

so,,,why singular?

Answer 1

because we dont like compare two things at the same level of comparison. it's like saying "can i have the bigger half?". if one thing is bigger than the other we look at that one thing. if it's smaller then we look at that one thing. we cant say both are smaller. although there mite be many things that are smaller than one thing....well all the smaller "ones" are of the same level of comparison so we just say "a smaller one". And would it make sense to choose one thing amoung the pile of "smaller ones" when they are all the same size?

Answer 2

The English language is one of the hardest to learn, because the rules don't always apply every time. To answer your question, you can ask; "Do you have a black T shirt." The problem is that when you say it that way it sounds like you only want to see one T shirt . When ever you use "a" as the article in a sentence it indicates one ... singular.

Answer 3

One is singular, more than one is plural. If you think about your question, the answer is there.