Lesson · Nouns and Articles · One and more than one

Nouns With No Plural

Some nouns have no plural. Advice is one: you may give some advice or a piece of advice, but not advices. In the word list, 75 of the 683 nouns that are only nouns have no plural that the list records and the dictionary confirms. This lesson prints them, sorts them, and says what a quoted count over a whole novel adds to the picture.

Open the interactive lesson Practice

no plural recorded for 75 of 683 nouns advice information furniture never advices an advice say some advice a piece of advice

Nouns with no plural in the list

Core ideas

What this lesson establishes

Three ideas.

A noun can be one that you do not count

Advice, information, furniture, money and knowledge name a mass of something. You can have a lot of it or a little of it, but you do not have one of them and two of them. Such a noun has no plural form, and it does not take a or an.

The list is made of kinds, and the kinds do not all behave the same

Of the 75, 47 are things you do not count. Nine already look plural, or are the same for one and for many: news, series, sheep, species, data. Sixteen are the names of days and months, which have a plural in use (two Mondays) that the word list does not record. Three are left over. A student needs the first two kinds. The third and fourth are limits of the list.

Some nouns count in one sense and not in another

Time that you measure has no plural, but a time that you remember does: three times. A rule that says a noun can or cannot be counted would be wrong for such words, and no list can mark which sense a writer means.

The material

Sorting the 75

Read the list once, then sort it. Four kinds cover it.

The last lesson ended with a rule that is right for 1,866 of 1,887 nouns. This lesson is about the nouns that rule cannot be scored on, because they have no plural to compare with.

The word list has 683 words that are only nouns. Of these, 75 have no plural that the list records and the dictionary confirms. That is the list printed in the lab, in the order of the alphabet.

What the list is made of

Read it once from the top. Most of it is things you do not count. Advice, assistance, clothing, equipment, furniture, information, knowledge, money, software, wealth: each names a mass of something, and in each case you count it with a phrase such as a piece of or some. Happiness, darkness, poverty, violence and tennis are the same: you have a lot of them or a little.

A smaller group of nine already looks plural or does not change: news, series, sheep, species, aircraft, data, politics, mathematics, and personnel, which names a group of people and is used as a plural. News takes a singular verb, and series and sheep are the same for one and for many.

What such a noun never takes

It never takes -s. It does not take a or an. And it goes with much and a little, not many and a few. The lab counts nothing about these, because the printed list holds no sentences. The count for a and an comes from a whole novel, which no page can carry, and it is marked quoted where it appears.

The two kinds that are limits of the list

Sixteen of the 75 are the names of days and months. They are here because the word list records only the singular name, and yet two Mondays is correct English. So for them the rule “never takes -s” is false. Do not carry the rule over to them.

Three more need care. Basis has the plural bases, which the word list does not record. Hell and sake live in fixed phrases, and the dictionary confirms no plural for either, so they are on the list rightly and teach you little. The list is not a list of nouns that cannot have a plural; it is a list of nouns where the word list records none. Read it that way.

Words that are not on it

The lab can also show the words that were set aside before the count. A program that sorts words by their use calls some small words nouns, such as and, at and he. They are not nouns here, and each is listed with the reason it was taken out.

Interactive

The plural rule, scored on every noun in the list

Each word's form is made by the rule on the page and checked against a dictionary

the rule—

the rule is right—

share—

it misses—

the words it misses—

nouns with no plural—

of the nouns that are only nouns—

Method

Deciding, for a noun in front of you

Three questions, and then a check.

Can you say one of them, two of them?

One chair, two chairs: yes, so it has a plural. One advice, two advices: no. If the words sound wrong, the noun is probably a mass noun.

Would a piece of, or some, fit?

Some advice, a piece of news, a piece of furniture all work. These are the ways to count a noun that does not take a.

Choose the small word in front

Use much and a little with these nouns, not many and a few: much information, not many informations.

Check the printed list

The lab prints all 75. If your noun is on it, the word list records no plural for it. If it is not, either the dictionary has a plural for it, even if you rarely meet one, or the word is not only a noun.

Check yourself

Score 0 / 0

Choose the answer you can justify.

Four kinds in the list of 75

Here is the printed list, sorted by what a student needs to know about each kind. The sorting is done by reading, and you can check every word against the lab.

47 things you do not count advice, furniture, information, money 9 plural already, or the same for one and many news, series, sheep, species, data 16 days and months Monday, Friday, April, December 3 left over: basis, hell, sake

The last kind needs care. Basis has the plural bases, which the word list does not record, so it is here by a limit of the list. Hell and sake are nouns you meet in fixed phrases, go to hell and for the sake of, and the dictionary confirms no plural for either. So “no plural in the list” is a statement about the list, and the first two kinds are the ones that are true of English.

The days and months are different again. You can say two Mondays, so for them the rule "never takes -s" is not true. They are on the list because the word list records only the singular name, the form that means one.

Common mistakes

Believing that every noun has a pluralInformations and advices are two of the commonest written errors at this level. The lab shows why: 75 nouns in the list have no plural, and the ones a student meets most often are among them.

Putting a or an before one of these nounsAn advice is wrong for the same reason as advices: both treat the noun as something you can count. The page cannot check this half of the rule, because its lines hold no sentences. A count over the whole novel, made once and quoted here, finds that ten words from the list (advice, information, news, furniture, money, knowledge, happiness, health, wealth and poetry) are never written with a or an, and never as a plural, in its 122,294 words. That is one old book.

Thinking a noun is always counted or never countedTime is a noun that counts in one sense and not in another. In the novel, counted once and quoted here, it has a time 10 times and times 19 times. Hope is the same: hopes is written 23 times. Both are on the list of nouns that have a plural, and neither list can tell you which sense you mean.

Check your understanding

✓

Finish when you can say, for a noun, whether it has a plural, and which small words you may not put in front of it.

You should be able to read the printed list of nouns with no plural in the word list, sort it into the kinds a student needs, state what such a noun never takes, and name the nouns that count in one sense and not in another.

Note: Not every noun with no plural is on the list. Words such as music and help have a plural in the dictionary and are not in the list, even though most writers never use one. The list is the dictionary's view, and a writer's use is narrower.