I've heard that either the singular or plural can be used after "no" depending on the context. For example, "he has no wife" but not "he has no wives". However, I am still confused about which is correct?
A1. I have no comment.
A2. I have no comments.
B1. I have no comment on the paper.
B2. I have no comments on the paper.
What about the following?
C1. He has no children.
C2. He has no child.
D1. I have no problem.
D2. I have no problems.
E1. I have no problem with the suggested arrangement.
E2. I have no problems with the suggested arrangement.
Is it true that plural is more common if the context is not very clear?
A1. I have no comment.
A2. I have no comments.
B1. I have no comment on the paper.
B2. I have no comments on the paper.
What about the following?
C1. He has no children.
C2. He has no child.
D1. I have no problem.
D2. I have no problems.
E1. I have no problem with the suggested arrangement.
E2. I have no problems with the suggested arrangement.
Is it true that plural is more common if the context is not very clear?
Comments
It also depends on the question: If it is assumed that you have just one, then use the singular. e.g. Is your house near here? I have no house, I live on the street.
If it is assumed that you have more than one, then use plural. e.g. Did you have good comments on your post? I have no comments. (There were no comments.)
I hope this helps.
omg
Usually, we ask "Do you have any comment?", so I believe the Googlificence (magnificence of Google) has been demonstrated once again. Here, comment is a synonym for response.
I see. You mean "comment" is used here as an uncountable noun.
The question is "Googlificence" also shows that "Do you have any comments" is six times more common than "Do you have any comment" (557,000 hits vs 82,500 hits). Also, don't we expect to receive "comments" when we ask people to comment?
How about "When comments or work has been identified as unsatisfactory,.."? Should we use 'have' instead?