One PDF & one Excel file. Singular or Plural ?

Factual Questions
1

I wrote an email, in which I enclosed two attachments; one PDF file and one Excel file. Then in the cover page letter in attachment section I wrote:

Attachments: 1 PDF file & 1 Excel files.

When I read it over and over I don’t know why I feel that it could be ( 1 PDF & 1 Excel file (singular noun) too!

Grammatically, because “Files” is going to refer to two items then it is to be plural, but I am curious if it could be used as a singular noun here in this sentence, in terms of being informal or spoken?

2

Why would you use the plural in this context? You wouldn’t say “one big dog and one small dogs” or “1 ATM machine & 1 CC machines”, would you?

3

1 PDF file & 1 Excel files

Seems grammatically ill-formed to me, in this case “file” refers to the immediately preceding adjective (“Excel” or “PDF” being a descriptor of what type of file in a grammatical sense), which is also changed by the quantifier.

Two PDF Files and One Excel File is correct also.

The case where this is NOT true is the case where you have

(quantifier) (adjective) & (quantifier) (adjective) (noun)

One PDF & one Excel file

In this case, intuitively I’d say that it should be avoided unless the pluraliity matches:

“One PDF & one Excel file”
“Three PDF & two Excel files”

Sound right to me –

“One PDF & two Excel file”
“One PDF & two Excel files”
“Two PDF & one Excel file”
“Two PDF & one Excel files”

All sound awkward to me (the second one being the least awkward), the only way I think you could really get away with that construction is:
“One PDF & two Excel file(s)”
“Two PDF & one Excel file(s)”

Waits for correction patiently

4

I’ve often wondered about this exact sort of thing. My problem is that both of the following sound incorrect to me:

One PDF and one Excel file
One PDF and one Excel files

They both sound wrong and I don’t know why. Ditto for:

One big and one small dog
One big and one small dogs

I think the only solution is to repeat the noun both before and after the “and”, with the correct plurality for each.

Help! Is there an English teacher in the house?

5

“2 files attached (1 PDF, 1 Excel)”

6

Concur. When the structure you’re using is awkward, don’t sweat it, change it.

7

Change it? ! Sure, Every Tom, Dick and Harry can do it.

I can put it in many ways, but I’m interested in finding out what Grammar says in this case.

Right? :wink:

8

Exactly. Changing it is the easy way out. I want to know exactly what is wrong with the original version.

9

i would leave the wording exactly as is and add more attachments to the email.

10

Personally I refer to a PDF as a PDF. I’m not sure why, it’s not like the F stands for file, but I don’t feel the need to say file, in the way that I do for an Office document.

11

I agree that “1 PDF file and 1 Excel file” is the correct form, just like “one big dog and one small dog.” No need to reword.