"Half a pence"

[UnquietDad]

From the Chancellor in his budget!!

Gordon never made that mistake.

It should be, if being most pedantic, "one half of one penny" - or "half a penny" would be OK.

[MargeSimpsonMyAlterEgo]

at least he didn't say "half a pee"

[Iota]

shame on him

I hate it when people say that.

[SheikYerbouti]

The man is obviously an imbecile

[LadyOfWaffle]

Or half of one pence ?

[DeeRiguer]

lol marge

[doggiesayswoof]

[UnquietDad]

"Half a per cent" annoys me too.

It's "half of one per cent."

[MargeSimpsonMyAlterEgo]

Why's that, UQD? We don't say half of one apple...

[RosaIsRed]

Because 'a per cent' doesn't mean anything. You have to specify how many per cent. One per cent is one in a hundred. You can't have 'an in a hundred' therefore you can't have 'a per cent'.

[branflake81]

Forgive my potentially shocking ignorance, but is "pence" not also singular as in "one pence" in which case you could have "half a pence" just like "half an apple".

Or am I wrong?

[RosaIsRed]

Jura is right. One penny, two pence. That is why you can't have half a pence.

[branflake81]

Well, according to this you're all right and I'm wrong, though am marginally justified in being so. (and if I can't be pedantic about the degree to which I am right/wrong here, where can I be?!)

[MargeSimpsonMyAlterEgo]

oooh branflake! How teasing to insert a link to something which needs a password to log into!!

BTW surely you can say "one half percent"?

[Homebird8]

ha'p'ny