# All Slavic Languages: Singular of "scissors"



## buntovnik

As far as I know in English there is no singular of the word "scissors". I know for sure that in Bulgarian when you are referring to one pair of scissors you say "ножица" (singular) and when you are referring to multiple pairs of scissors you say "ножици" (plural). How is it in the other Slavic languages though?


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## bibax

In Czech *nůžky* f. (< nůž = knife) is _plurale tantum_. Essentially the scissors are two knives joined by a pivot pin.


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## rusita preciosa

In Russian it is also plurale tantum:
Одни ножницы 
Двое, трое,  etc... ножниц
Две, три, etc...  пары ножниц


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## prst

Here it's *škare *and the word is plurale tantum, feminine gender. Same in Slovene, *škarje*. Both come from German (cf. _Schere_).


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## Gvozden

In Serbian there's no singular, plural only "_makaze_".


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## marco_2

In Polish only plural as well: *nożyczki *or *nożyce *(especially when you are talking about tailor's scissors).


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## Милан

Gvozden said:


> In Serbian there's no singular, plural only "_makaze_".


+ножице [nožice] pluralia tantum, feminine


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## AlexLM

*ножиці* in Ukrainian. No singular as well.

A singular *ножиця* could be colloquially used to refer to a half of the broken scissors, but it's very spoken language.


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## oveka

AlexLM said:


> *ножиці* in Ukrainian. No singular as well.
> 
> A singular *ножиця* could be colloquially used to refer to a half of the broken scissors, but it's very spoken language.


Ніколи такого не чув. Never heard of this.


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## DarkChild

buntovnik said:


> As far as I know in English there is no singular of the word "scissors". I know for sure that in Bulgarian when you are referring to one pair of scissors you say "ножица" (singular) and when you are referring to multiple pairs of scissors you say "ножици" (plural). How is it in the other Slavic languages though?



Often people say ножици to refer to a single pair of scissors, too, though ножица is much more common.


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## ilocas2

[...]

in Czech scissors are *nůžky* - it's only plural, no singular exists


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## Azori

Slovak: *nožnice* (plurale tantum)


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## dendri

Croatian: škare (plurale tantum as well)


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## nimak

*Macedonian*

ножици (nožici) ['nɔʒit͡si] _plurale tantum_


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