In Nouns^x, Difference between^x, Plurals^x

I have taught English as a Second language to new learners. The question/answer pair "What is this?" / "This is a ..."  is lesson 2 (after introductions "Hello, my name is...", "What's your name?") t teaches students how to ask for vocabulary words. ...

much is used with singular nouns. much butter, much water, not much information, not much hope, Much of it is ... many is used with plural nouns. many cars, many letters, not many horses, not many details, Many of them are ... There is no particular reason behind the usage. It's just...

That is interesting indeed and I agree with you Old Man Gordon. I am from Finland and according to my Finnish-English dictionary I should say "Finland is leading 2-0" without using the plural verb and "The Finns are leading 2-0" when using a plural expression. But I guess...

I'm sure many of you have heard of words such as bras , millionaires , and princes that become brass , millionairess , and princess respectively when the letter s is added to the end. What I'd like to know: is there is a plural noun that, when it becomes singular after the...

Hello HT, Hoa Thai wrote: My old note stated: ' a number of ' is plural and 'the number of' is singular. We can apply this logic of yours to 'a number of ' too, right? 1. ?There is a number of reasons why my post may be misleading. 2. There are a number of reasons why my post...

Hi, a) What is the slang or colloquial English used to refer to a woman that didn't marry ?; The word 'spinster' has almost become archaic now, I never hear it. Some people tried to popularize the word 'bachelorette', but that never seemed to become used much. I'd just say 'an unmarried...

Hi Osee, Perhaps, I added more confussion than I wanted to when I commented about 'Student Math-Club'. It is not the mode (singular vs. plural) that carries the meaning of belonging vs. that of responsibility . For example, a product manager (singular noun acting as an adjective) is responsible...

But how about "teacherS unions" in the following sentence from Voice of American ( http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-26-voa2.cfm )? Attempts at merit pay for American teachers have failed in many cases because of resistance from teachers unions or budget cuts. ...

Hello, I believe that we have been talking about compound noun, in which the preceded word could be singular or plural and acts as an adjective. I also believe that it is up to people, who want to convey their message / idea, to sensibly use whatever mode they want. Let us look at the compound...

Orpheus wrote: Do you think that the complexity of grammar of a language reflects the elaborate thinking of its speakers? No, not in the least. If that were true, present-day Anglo-Saxons' thinking would be greatly inferior to that of their forebears 1200 years ago. While Old English wasn't...