Googlefight!!! Flagpole, 3pm.
Ahh…unfair! It would have picked up LegOS!
I suspect it’s related to the wacky plural thing with sports teams.
UK (and other Europe, perhaps): Machester have the ball.
US: New York has the ball.
We use adjectives as though they were singular, even in the implied case where they modify a plural noun. (in this case “players”). When we hear “Lego” it sounds inherently singular to us, hence Legos is the plural.
Don’t let big corporations dictate our language to us call them legos.
Yes, but in Europe the plural’s always been “lego”, in England you could probably be shot for using the word “legos”.
But in those cases Manchester and New York are nouns, not adjectives.
As Mangetout has been at pains to point out, this isn’t about what is “right” or “wrong”, so a Googlefight is pointless – it just confirms that there are more instances of the American usage than the European usage on the web, which would be true of all subjects that are discussed on both sides of the Atlantic. BTW, dylan_73, a Google search on <LegOS “operating system”> only finds 2,200 results, so that still leaves a shortfall.
Well, not necessarily shot. But be warned those Lego bricks have pretty sharp corners.
However, the cockles of my heart have been warmed by the discovery of Google fights (ta, Jayrot), so I am at peace with the world.
At the risk of spurring a hijack, yes they are nouns, but are in some sense shorthand for [The] Manchester [players] or the [The] New York [team]. (Recognizing that ‘team’ is another tricky composite noun that (I think) gets different usage on either side of the pond. “The team is” vs. “The team are”.)
The gist that I’m getting at, although I worded it poorly is that collective nouns tend to sound singular to the US ear. So “My Lego are on the floor” sounds weird to us.
No, it would be “my lego is on the floor”, from an English point of view, as said before it’s more akin to the usuage of the words ‘plasticine’ or ‘money’, e.g “my money is on the floor”
Would it be all right to call them Legeaux?
In response to the OP, and not the hijack, Lego bricks do age, but not always in the sense of “wearing out.” I have found that bricks which have gone unused for a length of time (say, ten years) still work but tend to have a squeaky, crunchy quality to them. Bricks which have been in constant use over the same period show no obvious signs of change. Not sure why that would be, but it’s an observation. I recently obtained (and then sold on eBay) a Lego model car from 1967. Some of the plates still had “patent pending” molded into them. The parts were all functional. If anything, some of the smaller plates gripped a little to tightly, to the point where I was afraid of damaging them when I pulled them apart (never use your teeth for this – Lego makes a tool for just such emergencies). I have had very few experiences where a brick lost its “grip” over time. My best guess is that the material, left on its own, is more inclined to contract than expand, which would affect the holes more dramatically than the studs. Play wear usually takes the form of discoloration, scratches, bite marks :rolleyes: , or grimy, filthy child hand residue. Eeeww. I buy and sell (and keep :D) a lot of used Lego, and have never been struck by a batch which has lost any functionality.
Manchester and New York are the names of the teams playing, not a description of them. The teams are just named after the cities they represent.
There’s no grammatically logical reason why we in the UK use plural verb forms for teams and singular ones for the cities themselves, it’s just a convention we’ve grown used to and makes it easier to understand the subject of the sentence. The mental image we have is of “players” as you’ve suggested, but that doesn’t make Manchester an adjective.
“The team are” is not in common use over here. I suppose you could hear TV pundits using that form occasionally, but they tend to be ex-pros whose grasp of grammar is often faulty.
OK, I stand corrected. The above was some WAG musings based on my limited viewing of sports broadcasts overseas. I guess I jumped to conclusions.
Still… they’re Legos. 
Money vs coin(s);
I have some money, my money is on the floor.
UK: I have some Lego, My Lego is on the floor.
I have some coins, here is a coin, my coins are on the floor
US: I have some Legos, here is a Lego, My Legos are on the floor.
I suspect either sounds as odd as the other when you’re not used to it.
To my British ears, it sounds like the Americans are saying “I have some moneys, here is a money, my moneys are on the floor.”
I suspect the reverse is true; perhaps to Amercan ears, it sounds like I am saying “I have some coin, my coin is on the floor.”
Re Lego vs Legos, what nobody has pointed out is that Lego acts as a mass noun, like, say “water” or “cheese”.
Hence “I have some Lego”.
If I’m not mistaken, both sides are using Lego as a noun, when it is supposed be an adjective. So everyone’s wrong.
PigBoy has it right. Lego is the trade name for these unique building blocks. Just as Kleenex is the trade name for tissues.
However, we often call things by their trade names-Legos and Kleeneses. “His Legos are spread all over the place.” " There are Kleenexes all around his bed after a cold"
Re Lego vs Legos, I think the difference is in what is missing: “Hand me my Lego (blocks)” v.s. “Hand me my Lego (block)s”.
This seems to be the same sort of contraction that takes place when someone says “Hand me some more blues” instead of “more blue whatsits”.
No, PigBoy has it wrong. PigBoy and you need to read up about what a noun is and what an adjective is. I’ve highlighted a clue in your own post. Welcome to the SDMB anyhow.
Good point, but what if you needed more blue paint and the kid next to you has it? Would you ask for “more blue” or “more blues”?
Look back at r_k’s post and Mangetout’s last post – it’s all a matter of whether we consider Lego to be a bulk noun (the European usage) or a discreet noun (the American usage). The European usage does revert to “discreet noun” if we talk about individual bricks though, so we would also say “hand me more blues”.