"people" and "money" previously were used to denote plural. Now we have "peoples" and "moneys". What is the reason for this?
19964
Can you please clarify the relation and differences between these nouns?   For example, is it proper to use "persons" instead of "people"? Are they the same? As I believe that "people" is plural, how come there exists the plural of the plural (=peoples)? Does it have any usage?
17014
The usage of singular and plural has always been confusing for me.   I often see sentences like these         People are using cell phones.   People are using a cell phone.      Does the first sentence mean everyone has a phone and they are all using their own?  Does the second sentence mean they are sharing one cell phone?   If I see a group of people holding a cell phone in their hand(s), &lt;- even this is confusing for me, should I use the first sentence then?   Another example: you see two men, and both of them are carrying a bag. Which sentence should I say/use?        They are carrying backpacks          They are carrying a backpack      Could you please make it clear for me?
116302
The "multiplicity automaton (MA)" is a model in compute science and its plural is "multiplicity automata". Should the plural of the abbreviation be MA or MAs?      is not a duplicate as it is focused on cases like "ATMs" where the expanded form "automated teller machines" has a regular plural ending in "s." Unlike "machines," the word "automata" has an irregular plural that does not end in "s." It's unclear from the linked answers how abbreviations that end in words like this should be pluralized. A high-ranking  mentions "VIPs," but a high-ranking  says     VIPs' is a strange one. It could be argued that the expanded acronym,   when pluralized, should be 'Very Important People' rather than 'Very   Important Persons'. Using this argument, 'VIP' could be used as a   singular or plural noun. "The VIP has arrived." "The VIP have   arrived." I'm not sure anyone else would agree with my logic, though.
58378
In a question like this one, for example,      Who have/has come?    Is the word "who" singular or plural? Or is it both plural and singular?   I have heard it’s plural. Please correct me if I am wrong.
85793
Possible Duplicate:          If referring to a Users Group (meaning a group made up of multiple individual users who have some control of the group itself), would you use:    A: User’s  B: Users’ C: Users   I have read the post on the  but in this case, plural is appropriate since the group does not belong to one individual.  Wikipedia suggests Users’ (or Users) and in my domain, a leading stats software company has a , though they then use user’s group as part of the description.  What do you think —  A, B, or C?
53685
It is becoming more common for people to explicitly state the pronouns to be used in addressing themselves: he/him, she/her, or they/them. For example, a name tag for a conference might read:  Cory Lopez Some Company She/Her   Usage seems to have settled on the singular they and them as gender neutral pronouns. Alternatives that were once widespread in niche communities, such as sie/hir, seem to have died out.   Whether or not one agrees with this language  shift, the pairing between subject and object case is fixed.  It's difficult to imagine someone who uses "he" as his subject case using anything but "him" as object case, and it's even harder to imagine that such a person would succeed in getting people to use a non-obvious collection of personal pronouns. (And you may see what I did -- flat out assumed that "he" and "his" automatically go together.)  What are the roots of the practice of presenting subject and object case pronouns as opposed to just subject case, subject and possessive, or some other combination?   (Note: I am not interested in a discussion of the gender politics and cultural shifts involved, just the mechanics of how the current representation was chosen.)
49992
A relatively modern dictionary (I don’t know which one, because we’ve cut out the pages and used them as wallpaper in our bathroom, but I know it’s less than 20 years old) indicates that R’s is one correct pluralization of R, as is Rs, but whichever dictionary this is, it’s kind of a no-name brand, so I’m not sure I trust it.  I’ve always wondered what the best way was to pluralize single letters or numerals, like 2’s or 2s.  What’s correct?
89338
Words like "sky" and "money" have "ies" as a plural suffix (i.e. "skies" and "monies") but other words like "monkey" and "Emmy" do not ("monkeys" and "Emmys"). Is there a rule dictating the use of "ies"?
49210
I don't think this has yet been covered in .  There was , however, it was not specifically talking about the case where the proper noun ends in a plural noun.  Feel free to vote to close if I am wrong.  What is the correct way to make a proper noun ending in a plural noun ending in an "s" possessive?  This frequently happens with corporations, e.g., "Dunkin' Donuts."  Should one work off of the fact that the entity is singular—suggesting Dunkin' Donuts's—or should one work off of the fact that "Donuts" is plural and ending in an "s"—suggesting Dunkin' Donuts'?  I expect that the answer might depend on dialect because some regions refer to corporations in the singular form ("Dunkin' Donuts is a company") while other regions refer to corporations in the plural form ("Dunkin' Donuts are a company").  I am specifically interested in American English, but would be interested in hearing answers for other dialects too.
106175
I've read many articles that use the term 'emergency services ' and ' location services' .   Why not service instead? Why must it be plural? Thank you
32159
I had a little fight about persons vs. people.  Could you advise if both of the following are correct, if possible with reference to a dictionary?        A table for two people please.   A table for two persons please.      Besides that, how would you ask for a table in a restaurant?  I read  and , but they didn't really solve the question if both are correct.  I also found the last paragraph of , which suggests that (1) is "more correct", but doesn't say (2) is wrong.
119391
In school we were taught that a subject in singular form required a corresponding verb, for example:     The multitude of insects is astonishing.   multitude is singular, therefore is must be used.  But now I have been told by an experienced (but not native) speaker that a subject with a plural meaning can be used with a verb "in plural form", for example:     The multitude of insects are astonishing.   multitude means plural, therefore are can be used.  Is this just an exception which is not taught to English language learners, or is it informal use, or is this wrong altogether?
12706
While looking at the part of speech of the noun "thanks" in an online dictionary I noticed that it was a plural noun and wondered if it could be used in singular form. Glancing at the origin it appears that the old English word "thanc" was once used as the singular form of this noun. I assume it would be appropriate at that time period to say "I have a thank!" if you felt thankful for a single thing instead of being limited to always say "I have thanks!" as we do in modern English.   Nowadays, I believe we only use the plural form "thanks" as the noun in all cases. We can never have a single "thank". Instead we can only have "thanks"! I find this odd! It would make sense to have kept the singular form of the noun. Often we are grateful for a single action or event and it seems more accurate to have a single "thank" rather than many "thanks".   Is there any known specific background history as to why this is?
5400
I’ve been looking over what has been posted regarding the use of ’s.   I used to be a Technical Writer (years ago). The title of one of our training documents was Users’ Guide.  Once, a coworker said every time he saw that title he expected users to start coming.    Never made any sense to me, but I have to admit that the majority of us didn't understand the use of s’ in place of ’s.  What is the difference?
59463
On the one side, the USA is just one country. Logic says it should be, then, singular, just like the United Kingdom is. Example:     The USA owns this domain.   On the other side, if I however expand "the USA" to "the United States of America", I'd tend towards using plural &mdash; the noun the verb agrees with, "States," is definitely plural. Example:     The United States of America own this domain. → The USA own this domain.   What form should I prefer?
24908
Let's say we are talking about the indigenous pukapuka who live in Pluto.  What is correct: "the pukapuka people" or "the pukapuka peoples"?  I've read somewhere the usage of "peoples" in this context, and it has surprised me.
102034
If you have something like:     Get the name(s) of all users.   Should name be singular or plural?  The way I see it, each user has only one name, so it could be singular, but you will be getting many names, one for each users, so it could also be plural. Anyone know what is the proper way?