Singular or Plural nouns

Question

Could someone please help me with this sentence? I’m having problem with deciding if it’s it should be plural or singular.

I have a blue and red car.

or

I have a blue and red cars.

Which one is correct? I think it should be car and not cars as we are only talking about one unit.

Well... do you have one car that is blue and one car that is red for a total of two cars or do you have one car that is both blue and red? — Catija, Commented Jun 30, 2016 at 23:57
Related: Plural or singular noun when it refers to two things in a list — user3169, Commented Jul 1, 2016 at 19:02

Peter · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-01 00:01:33Z

2

In your example, you will want to use the singular, I believe you are trying to say

I have a blue car and a red car.
I have a blue and a red car.
I have two cars, one is red and one is blue

The article "a" distinguishes the two different cars.

However, your example

I have a blue and red car.

can mean you have one car and it has blue and red coloring.

I have blue and red cars.

means you have at least one blue car and at least one red car, but may have several of each.

answered Jul 1, 2016 at 0:01

Peter

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The general answer under the link given in comments, english.stackexchange.com/questions/221331/… , is that you can't say "I have a blue and a red car", and should say "I have a blue car and a red one". Isn't it?
– Joce
Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 21:28

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