Dozen

"How many would there be? A dozen? Two dozen?"

Why didn't the author use a plural 'dozens'? This is not the first time I see dozen used in that counterintuitive way.

That's just the way it is. It would sound weird to us to hear "two dozens", just like it would sound weird to us to hear "two millions".

However, to be fair, there WAS a time when "two millions" would have been used; it's just archaic now.

And when the exact amount of a set is unknown and vague, we DO use the plural -- dozens of times, thousands of people, millions of dollars. But when the exact amount IS specified, we switch to the singular -- six dozen eggs, three thousand miles, eight million ways to die. (Great book title, by the way!)

Seems to me that the key is the word "of" -- if an "of" construction is used, the set is usually pluralized -- dozens of times. If the set is used on its own, it usually isn't -- a dozen times. There are the occasional exceptions -- once in a while you will hear people say "two pair of socks" instead of the more common "two pairs of socks" -- but I think it's consistent enough to use as a rule.

If only you knew how badly I wanna have a cup of coffee with you xoxo

The number case only has to be marked once. If one were to say "two dozens eggs", one would be marking the number case twice, which is redundant and nonstandard. Moreover, "dozen" is acting like an adjective in this situation, and in English, adjectives are not marked for number. This holds even when the noun is not explicitly stated. So if someone asks "How many eggs do you want?", one can say "Two dozen", and it will be understood that one means "Two dozen eggs".

Aw, aren't you sweet! Another Guest makes a good point, too.