chemicals plant还是chemical plant(作定语用单数还是复数的问题)

问题描述

例句一: A small electronics manufacturing company makes a presentation to the board whether to outsource their distribution or build their own warehouse.

例句二: Land was previously occupied by chemicals plant (now demolished).

例句一的 electronics 用复数，就像 the American electronics industry. 但例句二 chemicals plant 一定要用复数吗? google上找到的例句多半是 chemical plant.

plant 是可数名词，为何不说 by a chemicals plant?

Thanks in advance.

老师答疑

蒋老师：

▲例句一中的electronics 一词本身就带有-s，它的意思是“电子学”“电子工作”，用作定语时，也是用它，而不用electronic。如：

About 45 000 people worked in electronics in  Scotland . 苏格兰约有4.5 万人在电子行业工作。

Their firm merged with a Japanese electronics giant. 他们的公司与日本的一个电子工业巨头合并了。

The company has achieved a premier position in the electronics field. 该公司执电子行业之牛耳。

▲英语中也有形容词electronic，它的意思是“（尤指设备）使用电子器件的，电子的”。如：

He measured the room using an ingenious new electronic device. 他用一种设计精巧的新式电子仪器测量房间。

Discrepancies occurred between the written and electronic records. 书面记录与电子记录不一致。

The hunt is on for potential employees with experience of electronic publishing. 正在物色有电子出版经验的雇员。

An optical disk is just another kind of electronic storage medium. 光盘只是另一种电子存贮介质。

▲表示“化工厂”，在英语中用chemicals plant 和chemical plant 都可以，但似乎以后者为多见。如：

pollution from a big chemicals plant 来自一家大型化工厂的污染（牛津英语搭配词典）

An explosion at a chemical plant has left one worker dead and four injured. 一家化工厂爆炸造成一名工人死亡，四人受伤。（《朗文当代英语辞典》）

你说得对，你的句子中的 plant 是可数名词，这里的 plant 应该用在前面用冠词或本身改为复数。