I meant “come” in the sense of are sold as.
I agree. And Acsenray’s formulation–“two pairs”–should have made it instantly clear what he wanted.
Asking for one pair, you’d have gotten two pieces.
Asking for three pairs, you’d have gotten six pieces.
Just try not to order exactly four pieces at a time anymore.
So, you are suggesting that there is a linguistic issue here?
If you were an archer, and asked for two pairs of arrows, you’d get six of them.
'Cause, if so, that discussion would interest me. Is it the case that in some contexts “two pairs” is ambiguous? Why? To whom? How did it happen? Where?
Hijack: Did you change your username from acsenray to Acsenray? I seem to remember that the initial letter was lower case.
I can see the legitimate possibility of confusion in items that are referred to as a pair even though they are actually a single item: eyeglasses, pants, scissors.
The worse part is if you ever have to order these again, and to avoid confusion clarify that you’d like two left and to right…and anyone but this guy will say, “Yes, I understand that. I’m not an idiot.” Can’t win, can you?
Right in that they’re usually imagined as a single item, but are typically two conjoined mirror objects. I think convention begs that items that have a left/right of something (lenses, pant leg, scissor) be referred to as a pair. If your a native English speaker, this should come quite naturally.
This case is a bit different in that ankle braces aren’t conjoined. They’re also not as common as socks, shoes or gloves. Perhaps the guy was unaware that ankle braces come in a left and right configuration? Even still, I think I wouldn’t have had any trouble parsing the OP’s request.
Yup.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2127837
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2148694
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2139048
Life experience has taught me to be very careful when relying on others if you want to get what you want. I would have asked for two right braces and two left braces.
Or two sets of ankle braces.
You think someone might screw up ‘pair’ but do fine with ‘set’?
If they come in packs of two, I would in the future ask for: Two packs. Being as each pack contains a pair, iI would also have expected a request for two pair to result in the delivery of two packs, but it’s apparently an unusual enough request that the order taker didn’t figure on the obvious, or just hadn’t inserted his brain before leaving the house that morning.
OK color me confused. First off I read it as a pair of ankle bracelets. Why would bracelets come in a pair?
Then I went back and re-read :smack:
Now I am more confused than ever. I have a bad ankle from shattering my heel 17 years ago. I have ankle braces. Lots of ankle braces. I have looked at even more styles of them than I have ever purchased.
I have never seen them sold in a pair, OR that were handed (lefts or rights)
Did I mention I was confused?
Here are some products being marketed as ankle braces that come in left and right.
http://healthytraks.com/index.php?case=product&proddb=1&pid=17009
http://www.aircaststore.com/product/air-stirrup-pediatric-ankle-brace
If you Google ankle brace pair, you’ll find plenty being sold as pairs.
Okay William Tell, care to explain before I go nuts?
I’ve never heard of it either, but I’ll hazard a WAG:
In target archery as a sport, I’m guessing the archer uses 3 arrows in his quiver for an intended target. Perhaps these 3 arrows are (counter-intuitively) dubbed a “pair”?
Now I’ve read the word “pair” so much it no longer has any meaning!
Ball peen. I’m not really contributing much to the thread. I just like saying ball peen.
Or two brace of braces.