English for Today by Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (Dr GAB)
DOZEN or DOZENS?
She was asked to get ~three dozens~ of eggs (nonstandard).
She was asked to get *three dozen* eggs (standard).
If you have a dozen things, you have twelve of them. The plural of dozen in this sense is “dozen” and it does not attract the preposition “of”:
We need ~ten dozens~ of Fanta bottles. ❌
We need *ten dozen* Fanta bottles. ✅
The storm destroyed ~dozen of~ homes (nonstandard).
The storm disturbed *dozens of* homes (standard).
If you refer to dozens of things or people, you are emphasising that there are very many of them; not necessarily in groups of twelve. In this sense, “dozens” does not attract numbers such as one, two etc:
~Two dozens~ of people were affected. ❌
*Dozens* of people were affected. ✅
GAB
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