Headquarters, even when there’s only one

A client said headquarter in a session this week, and he’s in good company. Lots of Germans say headquarter. Hauptsitz is one word for one place, so the extra letter looks like somebody’s mistake.

It’s always headquarters.

One building, one address, one company. The s stays.

“Our headquarters is in Düsseldorf.” The is is fine. The s still stays.

(The verb behaves differently. “The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf” is correct, and it’s the only version of this word that loses the s.)

Nobody has ever misunderstood a company over this, and it’s small enough to fix once and then forget about.

Premises is the same. You can’t work in a premise.

Quick win: Headquarters, always. And if the s feels wrong in your mouth, say head office instead. Two words, no trap.