What is the plural of "API" ()  Is it part of English irregular plurals ending in "-i"?
29143
For example, if I wanted to write the equivalent of  There are many automated teller machines in this city.  Would it be  There are many ATMs in this city.  or  There are many ATM's in this city. (could get confused with possessive form or contraction).  or just  There are many ATM in this city. (assuming the final s is included in Machines represented by M).  Maybe something else?
1502
When one says I was washing my hair, is it singular or plural? What is the singular for hair?
58704
I'd always thought that words like "physics" and "mathematics" were singular: after all, we say "physics is the study of…" etc. But apparently, according to the the comments , each of these words is actually a "plural noun [usually treated as singular]":   (highlighting/ellipsis added by me) (NOAD = New Oxford American Dictionary)  One, Is this categorization valid? That is, is it correct to say, as the NOAD does, that these words are indeed plural (but treated as singular), rather than to say that they are singular? The accepted answer on that question, by user RegDwigнt, has a different analysis that speaks in terms of “news” being "uncountable", "used with singular verbs", and "etymologically, it used to be a plural form", and thereby carefully avoids addressing this issue, of whether these nouns are indeed plural-treated-as-singular. So my question remains.  Two, If so, what makes these words plural? Is it the fact that they end in s? (Surely "bus" is not plural?) Is it history? (Were they used as plural at some time? How far back in history does one go to decide whether a noun is singular or plural?) Is it the fact that they don't have any distinct forms treated as plural?  Most importantly, why do we even have a grammatical category of "plural nouns treated as singular"? What purpose does it serve, and how are such nouns functionally distinguishable from nouns that are actually singular? When/if the reason is history, is there a rationale for saying "plural nouns treated as singular" rather than "singular nouns that were formerly plural"?  Edit: My question isn't just about "-ics" words, but all words in the category "plural nouns treated as singular" (assuming that the category isn't just -ics words).  Edit 2: The image and part "One" of the question were added later; previously I took for granted that the categorization was valid.
67222
I'm in an argument. To me "are" makes more sense. I understand the rationale for is because it's only one chicken, but chickens itself is plural. Help?
40348
This question is also open on EL&amp;U:   Considering the amount of controversy it aroused, I believe it's past "Learners'" level.    An edit was suggested to my sentence.     There was were an orange, some grapes, two apples and a small pile of cherries on the plate.   In my native language plurality of the verb always follows plurality of the first element on the list. There were an orange,... sounds awkward to me, no matter what follows up. My simple solution was reordering:     There were some grapes, an orange, two apples and a small pile of cherries on the plate.   But that's not the first time I faced this situation and I'd like to know what the rules of grammar say about that — was my editor overzealous or am I trying to copy rules of my language that don't apply in English?
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?
76870
For example,  A: - Look! There is a centipede on the table!  B: - (interjection)!
91324
From :     [...] in early parts of this century when it was the most user- and hardware-friendly Linux operating system available [...]   Is the user- fragment valid (outside this technical/informal context)?  The usage in this context is clear, as it's just avoiding the repetition of -friendly, but is it correct?  Would it be more correct to omit the hyphen?
102560
Examples:   "I did go home" instead of "I went home". "We did make some tea" instead of "We made some tea". "I do listen to future garage music" instead of "I listen to future garage music".   Is it correct?
58781
I'm using the glossaries package. I have an acronym (eg. API) that should be explained in the Glossary. It should be linked to the Glossary at occurrence but should be written out at first occurrence. How can I do that?  Explanation: I want something like that:  This is a test of Application Programming Interface (API). And this is the second occurrence of API.  Acronyms API Application Programming Interface Glossary API An Application Programming Interface (API) is a particular set of rules and specifications that a software program can follow to access and make use of the services and resources provided by another particular software program that implements that API
43304
I am not sure how to explain these phrases to a nonspeaker of English. Have all these examples the same form?  Get (v) married (v past participle)   or it is Get(v) married (adj)  ? Get (v) engaged (v past participle)                   engaged (adj)  ?   Get (v) divorced (v past participle)                  divorced (adj) ? Get (v) promoted (v past participle)                  promoted (adj) ?   Could somebody help me?
14150
A source says that the word "each" should always be followed by a singular noun, but however I look at it in this sentence it just doesn't seem to fit:     foo [comprises] multiple binary programs that each performs a single task.   Should it be "performs" or "perform"?
91840
The following Latin/Greek singular vs. plural errors make me cringe every time:  bacterium - bacteria criterion - criteria millennium - millennia phenomenon - phenomena  It's extremely typical for an English speaker to always use the plural form, i.e. &quot;the bacteria replicates by...&quot;, &quot;the criteria for ... is ...&quot;, &quot;a nice millennia&quot;. I would go as far as to say that the incorrect use trumps the correct use, but maybe there's a slight bias because I started looking for it. Well, it's mostly on YouTube, but the speakers do have degrees or at least represent science channels. A well known physics professor even used &quot;these phenomenon&quot; along with &quot;this phenomena&quot;. Super-cringe. Yes I listened back several times, because it's sometimes hard to hear the exact endings. So much for the rant, the real question is: Have (some of them) become so common that they are considered acceptable? I can't really tell, because it's not my first language. Maybe I care more because of that.
21555
When using zero as a quantifier, is it correct to use the singular form on the object of the quantifier, or the plural form?  It sounds confusing when I put it that way, but what I mean is: Which is correct?   Your password expires in 0 days. Your password expires in 0 day.   Essentially I suppose I'm asking, does "singular" mean "one" or "the opposite of more than one", as zero is not "plural" in the traditional "more than one" sense?  I'm pretty sure "days" sounds correct, but I can't be sure.
48126
I'm in a strange situation where I need to take two short phrases and make them into plural nouns.  Here's the context:     His was the destabilizing blow in a long bombardment of Why Latin?’s and waste of time’s.   The "Why Latin's" and "waste of time's" are obviously the problem.  Do I italicize them?  Use quotes?  And how do I make them plural?  Do I use apostrophes?
74575
Should I use singular or plural after one or more?  Example:      One or more [signal/signals]
110831
Head or tail sound fine to my ESL ears.  What's the reasoning behind the plural usage?  I looked it up on etymonline but didn't find anything interesting.