5 ms·

They can try all they want, but legos are pretty close to hitting "genericized trademark" status like bandaids and kleenex.

• danpalmer 9y ago
  Only in the US. Call it “legos” anywhere else and you get funny looks.
• IshKebab 9y ago
  I think he means more about the pluralistic than capitalisation. Outside the US (and officially) it is a mass noun so the plural of lego is lego. "Legos" sounds as grating as "sheeps".
  • gpvos 9y ago
    I'm not quite sure about English, but in Dutch, for single lego pieces we use the equivalent of "lego piece", or just "piece" when the context is clear, which pluralizes normally. If you say "I'm going to play with lego", the word "lego" is used in a more general, abstract sense, which has no plural at all.
    • IshKebab 9y ago
      You but you'd say "look at all that lego" not "look at all those legos" I assume?
      • gpvos 9y ago
        Indeed.
  • Vendan 9y ago
    One example of an active effort to prevent the genericization of a trademark was that of the Lego Company, which printed in manuals in the 1970s and 1980s a request to customers that they call the company's interlocking plastic building blocks "'Lego bricks', 'blocks' or 'toys', and not 'Legos'." Part of the reason they are being so picky about use of the name is to try to keep it from going generic. Unfortunately for them, I play with legos, my kids play with legos, and all of their friends play with legos...
  • chaoticmass 9y ago
    Also, In the US: "Hand me that lego piece" Elsewhere: "Hand me that piece of lego"