Substantivos no Singular e Plural em inglês

josneywat 6
1. Some nouns are always used in the plural. For example:

Trousers jeans shorts pyjamas tights scissors glasses/spectacles

You can also use a pair of… with these words:
Example: I need a new pair of jeans or I need some new jeans

2. We do not usually use the plural of person ('persons'). We use people instead.

Example: He is a nice person.
They are nice people.

3. The following nouns end in '-s' but they are not usually plural:

Mathematics physics economics athletics gymnastics news

Example: Mathematics is my favorite subject at school
What time is the news on television?

4. The following words end in 's' and can be singular or plural:
Means of transport
Series
Species a means of transport
A television series
A species of bird many means of transport
Two television series
200 species of bird

5. Although the following nouns are singular they are often used with a plural verb. This occurs because we think of these things as a number of people ('they'), not as one thing ('it'):

Government staff team family audience committee

Examples:
The government (=they) want to reduce taxes.
The staff (=they) aren't happy with their new working conditions.
Scotland (= they, the players) are playing against France in a football match next week.

A singular verb ('the government wants…') is also possible when we want to emphasize the collective character of an action.

Example: The government welcomes the proposal.

6. We always use a plural verb with the police.

Examples: The police have arrested Tom.
Are the police well-paid?

7. We use a singular verb when we talk about a sum of money, a period of time, a distance, etc.

Examples: Five thousand pounds (=it) was stolen in the robbery.
Three years (=it) is a long time to be without a job.

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