2020-12-14 09:54:59
#Tip 84.
A few nouns are plural in form, but singular in meaning.
Such are: gallows, news, measles, mumps, small pox (for
small pocks), politics, and some names of sciences (as, civics, economics, ethics, mathematics, physics, optics).
NOTE: These nouns were formerly plural in sense as well as in form. "
News", for example, originally meant “new things”.
Shakespeare uses it both as a singular and as a plural. Thus,
—“T
his news was brought to Richard” (King John, v. 3. 12);
“
But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?” (1 Henry IV, iii. 2. 121).
In a few words modern usage varies. The following nouns are sometimes singular, sometimes plural:
alms,
amends,
bellows,
means,
pains (in the sense of “effort”),
tidings.
https://t.me/Advanced_English_Grammar
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