sport and sports

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Believer

#266320 Wed, 13 Sep 06 11:30 AM

Hi,

Lately I am seeing a lot of sentences with the words "sport" and "sports" and want to ask you for the reason why a person would choose to use the one and not the other. I thought the plural form of sport is sports

(Is he asking this assuming that the person who will answer the following questions will mention several sports?)

Which sports do you like?

Which sports are fun to play?

Which sports are in the Olympics?

Believer

Joined on Mon, Jan 2 2006

Contributing Member (1,966)

Plurals

Mister Micawber

#266383 Wed, 13 Sep 06 02:17 PM

I'm not sure of the full extent of your enquiry, Believer, but as for Which sports do you like?, I agree that the speaker expects a response of more than one sport; otherwise, the question would be, e.g., What sport is your favorite?

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (19,565)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.' . 'A fabis abstineto' - Anon

Yoong Liat

#266595 Wed, 13 Sep 06 10:11 PM

In British English 'sport' is the general term and is an uncountable noun.

For example: (1) He is not interested in sport. (2) There is too much sport on television. (3) She excels at sport.

If it refers to particular types of sport, the term 'sport/s' (a countable noun) is used.

For example: (1) Bobby's sport is tennis. (2) My favourite sports are tennis and hockey.

In American English, 'sports' is a plural noun.

For example: He likes watching sports on television.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (5,610)

Yoong Liat

Inchoateknowledge

#266759 Thu, 14 Sep 06 08:24 AM

sport
noun
[C ] game
Football, cricket and hockey are all team sports.
I enjoy winter sports like skiing and skating.

sports

adjective

relating to sport:
sports equipment.
It's the school sports day on Monday.

She excels at sport. The preposition should be "in"

She excels the others at sport

Inchoateknowledge

Joined on Wed, May 3 2006

Senior Member (2,514)

Cricket, Football, Nouns, Prepositions

Yoong Liat

#266843 Thu, 14 Sep 06 12:16 PM

Hi Inchoateknowledge

According to the Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, if someone excels in something or excels at it, they are very good at it. Therefore, 'excel in' and 'excel at' are both correct.

Yoong Liat