Q. I am editing a textbook for English students in Brazil. One of the exercises presents a recipe for pumpkin pie. Students are told the pie filling contains 1 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1 1/2 cup sugar, and so on. I seem to remember that anything greater than 1 should be plural. Am I correct? In other words, should the recipe read 1 1/2 cups?
A. Yes, make those measures plural—but that’s way too much sugar.