Plurals – Advanced Dunglish

The singular of criteria…

…is “criterion” in English, not “criterium”.

Dutch treats the broad concept of pyrotechnics as a singular noun, “vuurwerk”. English doesn’t: fireworks are in the plural.

“If the patient can’t sleep, ask them if they need pain-killers.” This usage is perfectly acceptable.

You’ve only got one brain, even if you’ve got a lot of brains. Uh?

Nothing tricky about this one. A role or profession in the singular requires an article: “he is a teacher” or “she is the CFO”.

“I had a phone conversation with ten dentists” in English is a conference call, but in Dutch it would usually mean ten separate calls, one with each.

The plural of person is ‘people’, except in legalese and occasional old-fashioned texts.

There’s no such thing as “a training”. You either receive training – a general, uncountable noun – or take a training course.

Singular subjects require singular verbs and plural subjects require plural verbs… except when they don’t.

Um… surely not. The Dutch don’t make mistakes when referring to their own country, do they? It turns out to be a surprisingly tricky one.