J.A.Wines

Common nouns can be further subdivided into:

Concrete noun: used to name something you can identify with one or more of the five senses, e.g. parsnip, smell.

Abstract noun: names something that has no physical existence, e.g. delight, failure.

Use fewer with countable nouns, e.g. five items or fewer.

Use less with non-countable nouns, e.g. less traffic than yesterday.

Rule: We use a singular verb with a collective noun when we mean the whole group acting as one; we use the plural verb when we are referring to the actions of the individuals within the group.

A related source of confusion lies in the names of sports teams. Manchester United, for example, is not a collective noun. It’s a proper noun (hence the capital letters – see here) and it should strictly speaking – those words again – be treated as singular. So, bizarrely, should Glasgow Rangers, Bristol Rovers and the Boston Red Sox. On the other hand, there is no denying that lots of people say Manchester United are in the final and frankly only the most pedantic among us (and Chelsea supporters) are likely to be offended.

Adjectives treated as collective nouns – the rich, the homeless, the lonely – are always plural and require a plural verb, e.g. the rich are getting richer.

Sports with a plural form tend to take a singular verb when we mean them generically, but a plural when we mean something more countable, such as exercises. So:

Athletics is tiresome.

meaning the whole concept

Gymnastics are a great way to start the day.

meaning gymnastic exercises

Acoustics is singular when we mean the study of sound, but plural when we mean sound qualities: the acoustics were dreadful. Similarly, if you study ethics or politics, it is a singular subject, but if you bring a person’s ethics into question or complain about company politics, they are plural.

The following nouns take the same form whether they are singular or plural. So what would Sherlock Holmes have to say about that?

aircraft

kudos

series

cannon

means

shambles

deer

offspring

sheep

haddock

premises*20

species†21

trout

Some words ending in -is are Latin third declension in origin and have a plural form -es: crisis/crises, thesis/theses (pronounced -eeze as in cheese or sneeze).

And then there are those that have decided to ignore their classical background altogether and allow us to choose between two (or even more) plural forms, some of them rather suspect:

hippopotamus

hippopotamuses, hippopotami

octopus

octopi, octopodes, octopuses

oxymoron

oxymorons, oxymora

necropolis

necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli

rhinoceros

rhinoceroses, rhinoceros, rhinoceri, rhinocerotes