Newsletter and Grammar Coach

In the English language, most nouns have two forms: singular and plural. You may have one dollar or two dollars, one shirt or four shirts, one day or eight days. Ah, but there’s the rub — most nouns have two forms; the English language is anything but consistent. Some nouns have only a singular form, such as “health,” “furniture,” “peace” or “information.” And some nouns exist only as plurals — even though they may refer to only one item.

If you find that confusing, hang with us. We’ll do our best to sort it out for you. Nouns that exist only as plurals have a special name: pluralia tantum. That’s the Latin plural term for “plural only” (the singular form is plurale tantum).

Any time you tugged on a pair of trousers, or used scissors or traveled to the outskirts of your town, you encountered plurale tantum words. As a child you didn’t contract a measle, but you may have contracted measles. Likewise, many kids have had mumps (but not mump), and older adults are subject to shingles, a painful neural inflammation.

“Shingles” is an example of a word that exists as a plurale tantum in specific contexts, but can be singular in other uses. The singular noun “shingle” is used in reference to a rectangular roofing tile. You can play “the blues” or come down with “the blues,” while you can go up into the blue (in reference to the blue sky). You should always remain aware of your “surroundings.” Other context-specific plurale tantum nouns include “reservations” (in the particular sense of describing people who have doubts or reason to hesitate); “fatigues” appears in plural in reference to military clothing; “optics” (optometrists and opticians commonly test an individual optic element, but politicians, bureaucrats and corporate executives are concerned about the optics — public perceptions — of situations). A shamble is a slow, shuffling walking pace, but someone who makes a mess leaves a place in “shambles.” A singular bellow describes a sound, but a “bellows” is used to stoke a fire.

Clothes washing detergents and bathroom cleansing solutions are expected to produce more than one sud; you want suds. “Congratulations” always are offered in multiples — and so are “aspersions.” (“Kudos,” incidentally, is not a plurale tantum; it is a singular noun derived from the Greek word kydos, meaning glory or fame.) People who express sympathy offer their “condolences,” combatants engage in “fisticuffs,” musicians with talent and technical skill display their “chops,” an organization establishes an administrative “headquarters” location, and people who are regretful have “misgivings.” You can break something into “smithereens,” but you can’t have just one smithereen.

Numerous plurale tantum words are linked with “the,” as in “the backwoods,” “the boondocks,” “the giggles” and “the floodgates.” Deep-sea divers who surface too quickly may experience decompression sickness, a painful condition commonly known as “the bends.” Someone with nervous apprehension has “the willies” or “the jitters.” Disappointing conditions are “the pits.” Ingesting cannabis characteristically triggers “the munchies.” Someone who is experiencing stagnation or depression is in “the doldroms.” That has remained true through “the annals” of time. If you want everything on your pizza, ask for “the works.”

Although a shirt has two sleeves for arms, it’s treated as a singular noun. Not so for clothing items worn over the legs, which encompass a closet full of plurale tantum garments: pants, jeans, leggings, tights, shorts, bloomers, briefs, boxers, panties, drawers, long johns, knickers, slacks — and suspenders to hold them up. They’re usually linked with “pair of,” which enables them to be treated as singular nouns, as in “a pair of pants.” The same is true for certain two-element implements, including tweezers, pliers, scissors, shears and tongs.

Plurale tantum nouns each refer to single items, yet they are plural in the grammatical sense — and therefore require the plural forms of verbs. My jeans are in the washer. Condolences are appreciated. Harry’s pliers are on the workbench.

An action or event almost always leads to ramifications (“ramification” is rarely used in single form). If people admire you, perhaps that’s because you have the “trappings” of success (not merely one trapping). Such folks have bragging rights. Of course, with regard to ethical standards, they may have “scruples” (but not just one scruple).

Many plurale tantum examples are embedded in fixed phrases and expressions, including “the powers that be” and “horse latitudes.” We may have been “under the auspices” of an authority, “in arrears” financially or “in cahoots” with someone, but we can either let “bygones be bygones” or “go bonkers.”

We offer you congratulations for reading this far, and we hope you don’t have any misgivings about the time you spent on it. Now we’re ready for that pizza with the works.

For 30 years beginning in 1976, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency covertly established, owned and operated Air America, a passenger and cargo airline to use in clandestine Cold War missions. Air America supported stealthy American reconnaissance and supply operations during the Vietnam War. U.S. Marines pilot William K. “Jake” Wehrell was among the aviators who flew for Air America, on numerous high-risk rescue missions and flights delivering weapons and supplies behind enemy lines.

Decades after his retirement, Wehrell — who lives in Florida and describes himself as a “longtime soldier of fortune” — decided to document his exploits through the eyes of a fictionalized alter ego he named Roger Yahnke. Wehrell contracted with EditPros’ Book Prep service to publish his account, which he whimsically titled I Guess I Just Wasn’t Thinking. Because the scope was far too great for one book, he divided the account among four parts, which he published over a three-year span.

The first volume, I Guess I Just Wasn’t Thinking – Part 1: Instead of Skipping Stones, published in March 2017, recounts Roger’s seemingly innocuous childhood and adolescent adventures that set him on course for treacherous adulthood exploits which in many cases were the product of questionable judgment.

I Guess I Just Wasn’t Thinking – Part 2: The French Riviera, Leo, June and Big Trouble, which followed in August 2918, transports readers to an American nuclear-armed aircraft carrier commanded by Yahnke — whose shore leave activities include hedonistic adventures on the French Riviera, negotiations with the KGB in an abandoned house in Bulgaria, and a night in a jail cell in Istanbul.

As Yahnke signs on with Air America in the December 2019 release I Guess I Just Wasn’t Thinking – Part 3: The CIA Secret Airline and Eureka! She Exists! he begins to acknowledge and confront his personality flaws that contributed to the dissolution of his marriage.

In I Guess I Just Wasn’t Thinking – Part 4: At the End of the Rainbow, published in August 2020, Wehrell's alter ego Roger Yahnke finds true love and attempts to settle down — yet struggles as he finds himself inescapably retreating to his old habits, drawn by the seductive pull of precarious adventure.

Wehrell is using Twitter and other social media, as well as his own comprehensive website (https://jakewehrell.com/), to market his books. On his Twitter profile, the brutally honest Wehrell tells followers that he has received “many undeserved breaks” as well as “a few deserved disappointments” — thereby blurring the line between him and his fictional Roger Yahnke character.

As part of the Book Prep package, EditPros professionally formatted the interior pages of each of the four volumes of I Guess I Just Wasn’t Thinking, designed the cover of each, and readied them for print and e-book publication. These four books are among 35 titles that Book Prep has produced for authors during the past five years.

LEARN MORE about the EditPros Book Prep service.

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