Question e-mailed by Paul Gubac, Forum member (January 21, 2014):
What is the difference between “First Honors” and “First Honor”?
Is it right to use “First Honor” to refer to a Grade I pupil who has earned the highest distinction in class during Recognition Day? What is the appropriate or correct one to use, the one without “s” or the one with “s”?
My reply to Paul:
In the primary school system in the Philippines, the predominant usage is the singular form “First Honor.” I’m sure no one will question the use of “First Honor” for a Grade I pupil who has earned that highest distinction in class; it’s the norm for as back as I can remember. As an adult, however, a recipient of that distinction might be unable to resist the temptation to pluralize it to “First Honors” in a résumé or curriculum vitae, but it will most likely be an affectation—a vain attempt to overvalue what that honor is really worth.
In contrast, the usage of the term “First Honors”—plural—is pretty well standard in the undergraduate educational system of Great Britain and such Commonwealth countries as Australia, Canada, Republic of Ireland, and New Zealand as well as former colonies of England in Africa that are now independent nations. It’s part of an academic recognition system where a degree may be awarded “with honours” or “without honours” (note the “u” after the second “o,” a unique feature of British English spelling). In that system, there’s a class of honours degrees (based on a weighted average mark of the assessed work that a candidate has completed) classified as follows:
First class honours (1st)
Second class honours, upper division (2:1)
Second class honours, lower division (2:2)
Third class honours (3rd)
Ordinary degree (pass)
So, unless we are talking about undergraduate achievement in the UK and the Commonwealth countries, it would be highly advisable to just use the singular “First Honor.” To pluralize it to “First Honors” particularly in the Philippines could very well be perceived as an attempt to exaggerate the distinction, thus only serving to debase rather than emphasize it.
