Big list of things that come in pairs

Here is another interesting list, this time about things that come in twos or pairs. So far there are 66 pairs on this list, more will be added later if I can think of any!

Pairs are words in the English language that refer to two things that come together. Sometimes they can be just 1 item, while at others they are two separate things that always come together.

Grammatically, pairs come in the plural form and have the letter S at the end of their names. If we look at the word “sock”, it refers to a single item. The word “socks” however refers to a pair of them which is how they usually come (unless they’ve been through a washing machine!).

The lists below have been broken into 2. The first list is for singular objects that are never separated. The second list is for things that can be singular but pretty much always come in pairs.

English learners reading this article can note that the word “some” can also be used to replace “a pair of”. A native English speaker might say – “I am going to buy some shoes” instead of “I am going to buy a pair of shoes”. Both forms are correct.

On occasions “a couple of ” is also used (couple means two). This is only used for pairs of things that come as two separate items such as chopsticks or earplugs.