Richard M Willis wrote:

"James Farrar" wrote in message

Simply wrong. It's the singular form of pence in the same way that
pound is the singular form of pounds.

"penny" is the singular form of "pence", so that "pence" is inherently
plural ?! I didn't know that.

Isn't learning wonderful.

We need the word penny (which, just to extend your education, also has
the plural "pennies") so that we can communicate properly.

Thus, we can say:

I have one penny. - this is how much money I have.
I have a one penny coin. - this is the form it is in.

And

I have two pence - this is how much money I have

I have two pennies/I have two one penny coins/I have a two pence coin.
- to indicate the form it is in.

zero centimetre, one centimetre, two centimetre.

Arguable. Perhaps correct in technical documents, but to TMOTCO, it's
zero centimetres, one centimetre, two centimetres.
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