5 “News is” or “news are” – singular or plural?

Several English words end with an “s” in their singular form. Most of these don't pose any problem; few people would say “the kiss were beautiful” instead of “the kiss was beautiful”. However, there are a few that commonly cause problems:

news

Although the equivalent expression in many languages would be in the plural, “news” is a singular noun, so you should say:

Oddly enough, “news” is uncountable, which means that not only is it followed by a singular verb, but you also cannot say “a news”:

lens

Unlike “news”, “lens” is countable, so you can try to remember that if there can be “two lenses”, there must also be “one lens”:

series

To make things even more confusing, the plural of “series” is also series. You should therefore use a singular verb if you speak about one particular series, e.g. “my favourite TV series has been cancelled”, and a plural verb if you speak about several series at a time, e.g. “Some series on Netflix are pretty good.”

means

Similarly to “series”, “means” is already both the singular and the plural form. For example

bellows

A “bellows” is an instrument used for blowing air. Like “series”, the plural of “bellows” is also “bellows”, so you have to use a singular verb when speaking about one bellows and a plural verb when speaking about more than one.

Note, however, there is also the word “bellow”, referring to a loud roar. It's plural is, obviously, “bellows”, so in this context the plural verb would be appropriate.

measles

Measles is a disease, and as you have probably noticed from the theme of this article, the word is in the singular:

Quite naturally, it is uncountable, i.e. you cannot have “two measles”. There is another uncommon meaning of “measles” referring to cysts in meat, in which case it would be used in the plural, but non-native speakers are unlikely to use this word.

Other words that are a common source of mistakes are:

Plural nouns that learners think are singular

In addition to the words above, there are a few words that only have a plural form and might be confusing for some learners if the equivalent expression in their mother tongue is in the singular:

jeans, tights, trousers, pants

All this hosiery is used only in the plural (usually because they come in pairs—for both legs—and the singular form has died out):

When you want to talk about several pieces of these, you can use the word “pair”, e.g.