When should noun modifiers be plural and when singular?

Question

As far as I know noun modifiers should be singular. For example:

However, there are some cases in which a noun modifier will be plural. Example:

Why are the singular and plural cases different?

Perhaps this has something to do with the modifier being in 'base case' rather than 'singular'. Maybe "special ops" is the base case; "special operation" is something else altogether. Likewise for "special needs". (I don't have the full answer, so I just offer this observation. If someone does come up with a full answer, please ping me about it.) — Lawrence, Aug 14, 2018 at 5:36
The noun modifiers to which you refer are nouns themselves. This means that they can (but perhaps not always) follow the normal singular/plural convention. So whether you said "event organiser", or "events organiser", would depend on whether there was to be one "event" or multiple "events". — WS2, Aug 14, 2018 at 6:27
Having said that, I am a member of a committee which sponsors six lectures a year. And the person arranging the speakers is known as the "Lecture Secretary" not "Lectures Secretary". So the exact position does depend on an idiomatic principle, I suspect. — WS2, Aug 14, 2018 at 6:32
@WS2 But person is also a noun itself, so why 40 person team and not 40 persons team? — GEV, Aug 23, 2018 at 22:19

LawrenceC · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-07 12:23:53Z

2

As far as I know noun modifiers should be singular.

This is right, but plural nouns or noun phrases can "attributively" modify a singular noun. Reference.

This is what's happening with both your examples.

answered Sep 7, 2018 at 12:23

LawrenceC

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