Why say tonnes?

[greendress05]

When people mean “lots of” why do they write “tonnes of” and not “tons of”? Why bother making it an unspecified number of metric tonnes? I’ve even seen “a fucktonne” of. AIBP?

Well, she managed, could not estimate distances or weights until I did a bit of in depth with her and DS, and he took advanced maths. It seems that practical things to use in life weren't really covered. I was flabbergasted to be honest.

In the 1970s I definitely heard a man who worked in a factory pronouncing it like ton - ies.

The true test is whether Benny Hill would have sung about a character called Two Tonne Ted from Teddington (who drove the baker’s van).

I think he would not!

If it was good enough for a song about Ernie Price the milkman, it’s good enough for all other purposes.

More seriously, I agree OP. The idiom is “tons of stuff”, “I have a ton of work to do” etc. It’s a bit like “give them an inch and they’ll take a yard”. The idiom is not “give them a centimetre and they’ll take a metre”.

I notice this a lot, you're not alone OP!

I've never seen tonnes used in that way. I wonder if today's kids, who are brought up with metric and know nothing of lbs and ounces, don't use tons at all and are only aware of tonnes...

I say kids, but those brought up with metric could be over 50 now