Sometimes you come across this format suggesting 'one or more', in not as many words, like "Please select the book(s) you wish to loan". But what happens in that case of plurals that don't follow the same standard like Entry (Entries)?  Is it      1 of 1 entry(s) selected   or      1 of 1 entrie(s) selected?
39891
I guess “optional plural” is the correct term.  I’m referring to things like    It can be found at the following location(s). Please pick up your ticket(s).   But how do I do that to a word that ends in&nbsp;‑y? Take category for example: “category(s)” doesn’t seem correct, because categorys is a misspelling.  But everything else I have tried looks ridiculous.  What’s the correct approach here?
113830
I've been doing proofreading on a beta site and there appears to be a typo. Is there any usage of "many a times" that is correct, or is it always wrong to apply a singular "a" to a plural noun?
43261
I believe it well established that the choice of whether to use "There is" or "There are" with the phrase "a lot of" depends on the following word. For example, you would say:   There is a lot of wine. There are a lot of cars.   What is the right form to use for a pair of, a bunch of, a group of, etc.?
25208
Q: "Do you have any juice?"   A: "Yes, there's some in the fridge."   Sounds perfectly fine to me, but:     Q: "Do you have any towels?"   A: "Yes, there's some in the closet."   Does not.  I asked for towels - plural - so wouldn't "Yes, there're some in the closet," in which there are is turned into a contraction be the correct way to say it?  Spellcheck, however, doesn't like "there're", and I think I'm the only person I've ever heard use the word "there're".  Even folks who I know say "there are" shorten it to "there's" when possible.  Am I saying it wrong, or are both forms acceptable?
5288
When writing (a blog post, script, etc..) what is the proper way to indicate two or more instances of a single letter? For instance, in Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch:     C: I wonder if you might have a copy of "Rarnaby Budge"?      P: No, as I say, we're right out of Edmund Wells!      C: No, not Edmund Wells - Charles Dikkens.      P: (pause - eagerly) Charles Dickens??      C: Yes.      P: (excitedly) You mean "Barnaby Rudge"!      C: No, "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens.  That's Dikkens with two Ks, the      well-known Dutch author.      P: (slight pause) No, well we don't have "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens      with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author, and perhaps to save time I      should add that we don't have "Karnaby Fudge" by Darles Chickens, or      "Farmer of Sludge" by Marles Pickens, or even "Stickwick Stapers" by Farles      Wickens with four M's and a silent Q!!!!!  Why don't you try W. H. Smith's?      C: Ah did, They sent me here.   I had always believed that plural never uses an apostrophe before the 's' (it's only used for possession), but I have rarely seen in written material the format "four Ms". (On a side note, whoever wrote  also used "two Ks".)  On a side note, and perhaps this should be a separate question, if a Compact Disc is a CD, then two Compact Discs would be two CDs right? (I see "CD's" written everywhere)
120545
1) The number of books in economics that we need to buy (is/are) three.   or       2) A number of books in economics that we can buy for the course (is/are) available in the college book store.   Possible answers:  a)is  b)are  My approach:  I am confused here why is and are are used in the 1 and 2 sentence.  What they exactly mean according to subject verb agreement rules.
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?
7939
I have a question about the following construction and which instance is correct.        Selecting an appropriate study topic(s).   Selecting appropriate study topic(s).      When it is both singular and plural due to the parenthesized optional part, should I use the an because of thinking of what follows as being the singular (that is, study topic)?  Or should I omit the an because of thinking of what of what follows as being in the plural (that is, study topics)?
107525
What is the difference between hundred, a hundred and one hundred? Which one is correct?  The book has hundred pages. The book has a hundred pages. The book has one hundred pages.  I think maybe the first one is correct. Is that right?
39508
In a scientific paper I submitted, a reviewer suggested that I change the sentence     The operation just substitutes "(m, l)" with "m" on both the sender and the receiver side.   to     The operation just substitutes "(m, l)" with "m" on both the sender and the receiver sides.   by changing the last word from singular to plural.  There is only one sender side and only one receiver side, so my intuition tells me to use the former version, since   one would clearly write "...both the sender side and the receiver side" and I'd also write "The green and the blue box are standing on the table" (instead of "boxes").   However, I failed to find a grammatical rule for this, and English is not my main language. Is the reviewer right? And why?
30439
The day before yesterday I think, my daughter asked me where we were going and since I was not planning to do the weekly shopping on that day and I just wanted to buy some stuff from two stores, I said offhand we are going to the shops! Looking back, it seems when I don't find a NAmE word I turn to UK if I know of.  So what do you say when:   go shopping (it's just go shopping!) you go to buy something specific; I mean you're not going shopping, and it's usually found in any store. You don't have to shop around. you want to buy non grocery or clothing stuff, maybe a can of paint and a spare part for your car together.    I have found some kind of answer for this question on , but I prefer to get a clear answer to my points above, and also if you agree with this native speaker about using store in singular form not plural:     Just as a side note, we don't use the plural in American English. "I'm   going to the store" (even if I may visit several stores), not "I'm   going to the stores". (If we know we are going to several stores I   think it would be more likely to say "I'm going shopping" or even "I'm   going downtown" in smaller towns.)
83283
We had an argument in our collage if it's possible to have such structure:     "How many -singular noun- is there?"   For example:      How many chair is there?   The claim of the supporters: This structure should be used in case that t is not known whether there is one one or more chairs there. While just in case that it is known certainty that there are more than one chair, it should be "how many chairs are there".    The claim of the opponents: This structure cannot be since using the phrase "how many" always should be with a plural noun.  Both sides are not native English speakers, then I would like to know what is the truth.
40457
May I ask if the following sentence is grammatical?      Our remit is to conduct research on customer's requirements.   In my understanding, as 'customer' is a countable noun, so the plural form 'customers''' should be used instead for this general reference (without specification of certain customers).   However, I know that we can say 'traveller's cheques' - e.g.,      Traveller's cheques are available at the bank.    In this sense, actually can we say 'customer's requirements' in the first case?
36278
I have a quick question on how to reference organizations that contain more than one word.   For example, I am using this syntax,  @misc{Directive2010, address = {Brussels}, author = {European Parliament and Council of the European Union}, keywords = {Manual,fix}, mendeley-tags = {Manual,fix}, number = {4}, pages = {1--12}, publisher = {European Parliament}, title = {{Directive 2010/30/EU}}, year = {2010} }   The output I get in the text is: (Parliament and of the European Union, 2010)  and I want it to show as: (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2010)  Thank you for your help!!
100313
What is the British English way of referring to a source in-text.  Is it plural because there are two authors, like this:         X and Y (2011) describe ...   Or is it singular because you are referring to a singular source, like this:     X and Y (2011) describes...   So what I am asking is whether you refer to the source or to the authors?
86064
1) "The book 'The Three Musketeers' is a wonderful example of..." Here we have a proper noun, a title that happens to end in a plural, and I have no sense that the verb should be plural. "Musketeers"/is seems proper/natural/correct, and 'are' not at all.   However, such certainty begins to wane in other examples: 2) "'The Heidi Chronicles' is a wonderful example of..." doesn't completely shake my confidence, but it moves the needle, at least a little bit. But, practically speaking, I wouldn't have a second thought about correcting a student who used 'are' instead of 'is'.  Here's the one that really bothers me: 3a) " 'The Basement Tapes' are a wonderful example of..." I don't think this sounds any less proper/natural/correct than 3b) " 'The Basement Tapes' is..." In fact, 3a seems less awkward than 3b.  Why?
41771
I wonder whether there are rules or guidelines regarding plural nouns in nominal compounds. For example a compound university students list. If there are many lists and many universities is it grammatically correct to say universities students lists? Must all elements be in the plural form or can some be left in singular, even though the meaning is plural? I've seen an expression universities student lists; is it correct?