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Please check the sentences and let me know, which one is correct?

I read somewhere:

Clad in a bluejeans and a grey jacket.

As per my opinion:

Clad in a pair of bluejeans and a grey jacket.

Thanks in advance.

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When referring to any sort of jeans or pants in English, one of them is always "a pair". No fluent American English speaker says "a bluejeans" or "a pants".

You can say, "I wore a pair of bluejeans." Or you can say, "I wore bluejeans." But you can't say -- WRONG -- "I wore a bluejeans."

This is true for any clothing worn over the legs that has separate tubes of cloth for each leg, even though they are connected together. "A pair of pants ..." "A pair of shorts ..." "A pair of panty hose ..." Perhaps weirdly, it is also used for clothes that don't have separate legs, like "a pair of underwear" and "a pair of panties". But it is not used for skirts or dresses: We say "a skirt". "A pair of skirts" would mean two separate articles of clothing. Which is kind of funny when you think about it, but whatever.

If, as @oerkelens says, the usage is different in India -- I wouldn't know.

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The correct usage is "a pair of bluejeans".

The reason:

The form pair of pants was standard right from its earliest use. Indeed, words for nether garments all seem to have been commonly plural throughout their history, often prefixed by pair of ...: breeches, shorts, drawers, panties, tights, knickers (short for knickerbockers), and trousers.

Before the days of modern tailoring, such garments, whether underwear or outerwear, were indeed made in two parts, one for each leg. The pieces were put on each leg separately and then wrapped and tied or belted at the waist (just like cowboys’ chaps). The plural usage persisted out of habit even after the garments had become physically one piece. However, a shirt was a single piece of cloth, so it was always singular.

Source: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pai1.htm

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    I don't think bluejeans is wrong, but blue jeans is much more common. (In COCA, they have 75 and 971 results respectively.)
    – user230
    Mar 11, 2014 at 21:26
  • @snailplane: I agree. Blue Jeans is more common. But I think OP asked the question whether to use "a pair of" or simply "a" before Bluejeans (or Blue Jeans) and that is why I did not explain on its use.
    – kmdhrm
    Mar 13, 2014 at 7:11
  • Excellent point on the history. It never occurred to me before that one might think it inconsistent that we don't say "a pair of shirts" with the same meaning as "a pair of pants", even though shirts have two sleeves just like pants have two legs. And why don't we say "a quintuple of gloves", given that they have five fingers? :-)
    – Jay
    Mar 13, 2014 at 16:17
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That's okay. Bluejeans is a word often used to mean jeans. Wikipedia redirects bluejeans to jeans. However the article a should be removed. Pants, trousers, spectacles etc are always plural.

You are right. A pair of bluejeans represents one piece of it.

Okay, here I got it. It's an alternate spelling for blue jeans.

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  • @user62015 I observe from your profile that you don't select the answers though you always thank. If you think the answer is really useful, select answers so that it's easy to maintain the site. The site is all about asking or expressing doubts and if get satisfying answer, select and complete the process.
    – Maulik V
    Mar 11, 2014 at 12:10
  • I agree with you, but sometimes I wait for other answers because when we have more people in a discussion we get more points and things become more clear. By the way I did not have any idea that I need to select a perfect answer, I will do it from now.
    – user62015
    Mar 11, 2014 at 12:13
  • Thanks, your answers are always great but in this particular case you focused on something else. I wanted to ask something else but you mentioned another point but honestly it has been helping because it has a new point, which I just learned.
    – user62015
    Mar 11, 2014 at 12:15
  • @user62015 I thought so. I'm not talking about this answer. Any answer you feel is helpful, upvote it (by clicking an up arrow) or downvote it in case it's not helpful at all. After having enough time taken, you should select (by clicking 'correct' or 'check' mark) the answer. That'll complete the process.
    – Maulik V
    Mar 11, 2014 at 12:15
  • Sure. I would do from now on wards.
    – user62015
    Mar 11, 2014 at 12:16

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