I have a curiosity, something that I was never given an explanation to and I have to ask for some kind of clarification to get a better understanding.
From the title of my post, it may seem a little odd, but here is what I want to know about.
I know there are several words such as "hand towel" or like the above example "dish drying mat" and the thing is that I have a friend who also knows English but I don't understand why she keeps insisting to write in this way: "Hands towel" or "dishes drying mat". While it's true that in our language it implies the plural (which we would literary translates like for example: Towel for hands), I keep telling her that in English it doesn't sound right and it she doesn't have to necessary write the respective word in plural, just because it's like that in our language.
I don't know how can I explain further but perhaps there are rules in other languages when it comes to the use of singular and plural but I would require an explanation for it, if there is any. I'm sorry if I didn't explain properly, but this was brought up several times by this friend of mine and it just seems so strange the way she would write those words and similar others in that manner and it makes me cringe whenever I read her translations of stuff that we do.
