Which all means that the simple phrase "You got Phoenix Down" is, after all, correct?

there is no single word to describe the singularity of the word down. i would say down is the condition of the feather rather then the actual name of it. down is used to describe all the feathers in the area they are most common found (such as a baby ducks feather condition). the "a feather from the down" is defiantly not right, it even sounds totally wrong.

down is a word that is like read, it can mean two different things without changing the spelling. there are probably other examples of these.

Karr: Again, there are no examples that show down meaning something in singular. There are also no examples that show it refers to a condition.

It always refers to "fur", "hair", "feathers" that are underneath or prior to the growth of the more easy to define objects. It is distinctly different, however.

I also noted "another way to say it", because I knew the way I worded it in my example sounds wrong.

Gnasher: To refer to it like that, it would have to be a product as Karr suggested. However, Kajak's wiki article proves it is not a product. It is referring directly to a Phoenix's down.

wiki is user driven, which means its prone to error. the definition of the item in wiki is not something i would agree with and its overly basic at best. i could edit wiki right now to reflect my argument here, would doing that make me win?

the pheonix down has had the same effects but its showing graphic has been different in each game. also the quantity of feathers has varied from one to a huge pile of the stuff.

i really have no idea where ive been going with this argument. im still disgruntled that my friend bought a psp and crisis core before me.

@Lantis
About your subtopic, are you saying that in FFVII there are no "instant death" spells an enemy can use that phoenix down can revive you from?

Well, I think it's really just a matter of naming here.

Calling the magic spell "Death" something like "Knock Out" or "Unconsciousness" would be a bit... I dunno, bland. But you raise a good point. The only real counter I have to it is that never in any Final Fantasy has any form of revival in battle has been said to bring characters back from "Death." And besides, I think the description for the spell is "Reduces HP to zero" which doesn't necessarily mean actual death.

Lantis, you made topic on correct grammar and you keep misspelling Phoenix Down.

Well since I don't feel like reading the whole argument, I believe Phoenix Down is referring to a Phoenix Down Feather, singular as the picture for it is usually one in most of the Final Fantasies. Why is it Phoenix Down and not Phoenix Down Feather, because the latter doesn't flow of the tongue as well, but more importantly older games were limited to the size of strings they could store and Phoenix Down feather is too long.

So you can use a Phoenix Down (feather), and you can use some Phoenix Down (feathers). Using the implied word feather (which is what they really are fancy names aside) Down is both singular and plural. So while probably technically grammatically incorrect (as you would likely say a piece of down, or always suffix the singular down with feather), in the context of the game I think it's fine.

And what Manji said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_feather



"Down feather" isn't gramatically correct either.