Singular or plural when indicating something unique owned by many

Question

In the following sentences, which one is correct?

• Tom likes dogs with long tails.
• Tom likes dogs with a long tail.

There are many tails because there are many dogs. But each dog has only one tail. I prefer the second sentence, but I am not sure if it's correct.

Answer 1

Both sentences are correct and understandable.

To this native speaker, the first sounds more native-spoken, even though there may be interpreted as many dogs each having multiple tails.

The second is more wordy and does not sound natural since we already know that dogs only have one tail. However, if the speaker further describes the tail then a would be used :

Tom likes dogs with a full, bushy tail.

Answer 2

I don't even know whether there's a rule here. For what it's worth:

Your first sentence is correct. The second one sounds kind of lame.

That said, there may be exceptions, such as when the plural form doesn't make sense while the singular does. As in:

I happen to like people with a good eye for architecture.

Answer 3

This is correct:

1. Tom likes dogs with long tails.

This one is also correct:

2. Tom likes dogs with a long tail.

Refer to this book on Google Books.¹

Here is an excerpt:

---

Have a good look at this chart from Google Books Ngram Viewer too:

_{1. Current Issues in Romance Languages}