NOUNS THAT DO NOT ADD 'S' IN THE PLURAL (PART 1)

Certain nouns in the English language do not have separate plural forms. They are sometimes referred to as 'uncountable', or 'non-count' nouns.

One example is 'evidence'. If we are using 'evidence' as a noun, we should never add an 's' to it.

'Experimental evidence confirms that . . .' is correct.
'Experimental evidences confirm that . . .' is not correct.
(It would be correct to refer to 'pieces of evidence'.)

Other nouns that should not have an 's' added to them include:

• accommodation
• advice
• anger
• applause
• aircraft
• bravery
• chaos
• clarity
• conduct
• courage
• cowardice
• education
• electricity
• equipment
• furniture
• greed
• harm
• health
• heat
• hockey
• homework
• honesty
• hospitality
• housework
• information
• jewellery
• leisure
• literature
• livestock
• luggage
• knowledge
• machinery
• marketing
• melancholy
• moose
• mud
• news
• peace
• photography
• publicity
• pyjamas
• softness
• safety
• shopping
• sunshine
• traffic
• violence
• warmth

Some of the above nouns can become countable if we precede them with other words, such as 'items' or 'pieces'. We can refer to:

• pieces of advice
• pieces of equipment
• items/pieces of furniture
• pieces of homework
• items/pieces of information
• items/pieces of jewellery
• items/pieces of literature
• items/pieces of luggage
• items/pieces of knowledge
• items/pieces of machinery
• items/pieces of news
• items/pieces of publicity
• pairs of pyjamas
• items/pieces of shopping
• rays of sunshine

There are a number of nouns that would not normally have an 's' added to them in the plural, but may do under certain circumstances. Parts 2 and 3 of this post deal with nouns such as these.