Singular or plural nouns

Question

Hello everyone!service, payment, and fee are all countable nouns. When should we use their singular forms and when should we use their plural forms? When to use service/payment/fee? When to use services/payments/fees?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

'Service' and 'payment' are not necessarily countable, but when they are, use the singular for one of them and the plural for more than one of them:

This payment was received late.

These payments were received late.

Timely payment is mandatory. (uncountable)

Anonymous · Answer

How about the word, fee? Is it always a countable noun?

In what cases, service / payment is countable? Is there any rules to follow?

Mister Micawber · Answer

No rules; semantic sense.  It depends on which you are speaking of-- the uncountable activity or specific instances of such.

Anonymous · Answer

Is fee always a countable noun?

BillJ · Answer

Hi Anon

Service can be count or noncount:

My car’s in the shop for a service (singular - one service, so count)

My church holds three services every day (plural - more than one, so count)

The service in this restaurant is awful (means the act of dealing with a customer, so noncount)

Payment can be count or noncount:

You can make a single payment if you wish (singular - one payment, so count)

You can make 24 monthly payments if you wish (plural - more than one payment, so also count)

Prompt payment would be appreciated (means the act of paying, so noncount here)

Fee is always a count noun:

Is there a fee for this service? (singular)

My lawyer’s fees are exorbitant (plural)

But there's no fee is nice, so it can't be noncount.

The rule is that count nouns refer to individual, countable entities, such as books, eggs and horses. Noncount nouns refer to an undifferentiated mass or notion, such as butter, music and advice. But, as with your examples of service and payment, some nouns can be either count or noncount depending on their meaning.

Cake, for example, is a count noun here: Would you like a cake? (means an individual cake)

But noncount here: Do you like cake? (means the product in general)

Hope that helps.

Singular or plural nouns

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