A common error notable among English language users in Nigeria is adding the plural marker "s" to nouns where it is not needed. This is certainly a consequence of the inability of many Nigerian speakers and writers of the English language to keep up with the quirky, illogical irregularities that are so annoyingly typical of the conventions of English grammar.
It is common knowledge that the plural form of most nouns in English is created by adding the letter “s” to the end of nouns. But sometimes it requires adding “es” to nouns that end in “ch,” “x,” “s” or s-like sounds, such as “inches,” “axes,” “lashes,” etc. There are also, of course, irregular forms like “children” as the plural of “child,” “oxen as the plural of “ox,” etc.
We have uncountable—or, if you will, “non-count”— nouns, which cannot be modified or combined with the indefinite articles “a” or “an.” This is precisely where Nigerians fall foul of standard usage norms.
Most educated Nigerians generally know that nouns like equipment, furniture, information (except in the expression “criminal informations,” or “an information,” which is used in the US and Canada to mean formal accusation of a crime akin to indictments), advice, news, luggage, baggage, faithful (i.e., loyal and steadfast following, as in “millions of Christian and Muslim faithful”), offspring, personnel, etc remain unchanged even when they are expressed in a plural sense. But few know of many other nouns that have this characteristic.
However, although most educated Nigerians would never say “newses” or “advices” or “informations” to express the plural forms of these nouns, they tend to burden the words with singular forms that are not grammatical. For instance, they would say something like “that’s a good news” or “it’s just an advice” or “it’s an information for you.”
Well, since these nouns don’t have a plural form, they also can’t have a singular variant, that is, they cannot be combined with the definite articles “a” or “an.” So the correct way to render the sentences above would be “that’s a good piece of news” (or simply “that’s good news”), “it’s just a piece of advice,” and “it’s information for you.”
Also consider how Nigerians inflect the word “legislation” for grammatical number by adding “s” to it. The sense of the word that denotes “law” does not take an “s” even if it’s used in the plural sense. In Standard English, the plural form of the word is usually expressed with the phrase “pieces of,” or such other “measure word” (as grammarians call such expressions). However, the sense of the word that means “the act of making laws” may take an “s,” although it’s rare to encounter the world “legislations” in educated speech in Britain or America.
Another noun that Nigerians commonly add “s” to in error is “rubble,” that is, the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up. This word is never inflected for plural. It’s customary to indicate its plural form with the measure word “piles of,” as in “piles of rubble.” (Grammarians call words that are invariably singular in form “singulare tantum”).
Similarly, the word “vermin,” which means pests (e.g. cockroaches or rats) — or an irritating or obnoxious person— is invariably singular and therefore does not require an “s” or the indefinite article “a.” But in Nigerian English it’s common to encounter sentences like “they are vermins” or “he is a vermin.”
“Footage” and “aircraft” are also invariably singular. So it’s wrong to either say or write, as many Nigerian do, “a footage” or “footages,” “an aircraft” or “aircrafts.” Dispense with the “s” at the end of the nouns and the indefinite articles “a” and “an” at the beginning.
Other nouns that are habitually pluralized wrongly in Nigerian English are, heyday (there is nothing like “heydays” in Standard English); yesteryear (there is no word like “yesteryears” in Standard English); cutlery (the word remains the same even if you’re talking of millions of eating utensils); overkill (don’t say “it’s an overkill”; simply say “it’s overkill”); slang (prefer “slang words” or “slang terms” or “slang expressions” to “slangs,” and avoid saying “a slang”); invectives (the word’s plural form is expressed by saying “a stream of invective,” not “invectives”); beehive of activity (the expression “beehive of activities” is nonstandard ); fruit (“fruits” is nonstandard, except when it’s used collectively; it’s “fruit and vegetables,” not “fruits and vegetables”), potential (not "potentials"), personnel (referring to workers in an organisation. Irrespective of the number of persons being referred to, it does not take the letter "s"), staff (personnel in an organisation). It is more appropriate to say "members of staff" than staffs.
Others are: stationery (materials such as paper, pens, and ink that are used for writing or typing). A shop where those items are sold is a "stationery shop", not "stationeries shop". Same applies to jewelry (decorative objects such as rings, necklaces, and earrings that people wear on their body). The plural remains "jewelry", not "jewelries".
We hope you will find this post useful.
We welcome your comments, observations and suggestions on this blog.
Best regards.
From the Grammarstar team.
Comments