"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.

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

shame on him

I hate it when people say that.

The man is obviously an imbecile

Or half of one pence ?

lol marge

"Half a per cent" annoys me too.

It's "half of one per cent."

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

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'.

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?

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

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?!)

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"?

ha'p'ny