The police is... or are? - Singular and plural invariable nouns

Hi there!

The other day in class some of you asked me about nouns which are always singular, and nouns which are always plural. This is important for the ageement (concordancia) with the verb and pronouns.

Well, here you have a complete list of those nouns!

Nouns which are always singular (singular invariable nouns)

• Proper nouns, e.g. Sally, Bruce, Jamie.

• Uncountable nouns. If we want to count them, we have three options:

     1. Measures: one pound of butter; two litres of milk; three kilos of sugar...  

     2. Partitives: a piece of, a bit of, an item of... 

     3. Specific counters: a flash of lighting; a word of advice; a burst of applause...

• Some nouns ending in -s

               1. News

               2. Subjects and sciences which finish in -ics: linguistics, politics, phonetics...

               3. Some games: billiards, draughts, darts, dominoes...

               4. Certain diseases: measles, mumps, rickets, shingles...

• Collective nouns, which refer to groups of single entities. The verb can be either singular or plural; the decision depends on whether the speaker is thinking of the group of a whole or as a collection of individuals:

               Government, team, company, council, committee...

Nouns which are always plural (plural invariable nouns)

• Tools, instruments and articles of clothing which consist of two parts joined together: glasses, scissors, binoculars, spectacles, trousers, jeans, trunks, tights, shorts...

• Nouns that refer to entities which comprise an indefinite number of parts: clothes, outskirts, stairs, surroundings, goods, remains...

• Some proper nouns: the Netherlands or the States

• Nouns that do not have an -s, but are plural anyway: police, people, staff, clergy, folk, cattle, poultry, livestock

Useful? :)