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Mr. Tom Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

Graffiti -- singular or plural

Hi

I have seen the word graffiti used both as a singular uncountable noun and a plural noun. Could you please tell me if we can use it both ways?

The graffiti around the school walls were/was simply appalling.

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

do=newreply&p=9869916 We have adopted the plurals of some Italian words and use them for uncountables without really adopting the singular form. We say 'The wall is covered in graffiti'; 'The film star is surrounded by the paparazzi'; 'A bowl of spaghetti', but very rarely say a graffito or a paparazzo and never a spaghetto.

— Rover_KE

  • do=newreply&p=9869916 We have adopted the plurals of some Italian words and use them for uncountables without really adopting the singular form.
  • We say 'The wall is covered in graffiti'; 'The film star is surrounded by the paparazzi'; 'A bowl of spaghetti', but very rarely say a graffito or a paparazzo and never a spaghetto.
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2 Answers
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It's more usual to say 'The graffiti on the school walls was simply appalling.'

http://forum.wordreference.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=9869916
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'Was' sounds much more natural. I know that some dictionaries describe 'graffiti' as both a plural noun and an uncountable noun, but it is more widely used as an uncountable noun. There is an interesting paragraph about it in the Merriam Webster online dictionary which says:

Graffiti, which also serves as the plural of graffito, is commonly used as a singular mass noun <
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