Sometimes an answer in the listening test must be given as a plural, whereas on other occasions the answer can be given as a singular or plural. Let's have a look at two examples from Cambridge IELTS 13.
1) The underlined answer in the sentence below must be a plural
includes recipes to strengthen your bones (the singular 'bone' is not accepted)
2) The underlined answer below can be given as a singular or plural
Catarina Miranda focused on the behaviour of urban and rural blackbirds. ('behaviours' is also accepted)
Task:
Can you explain why the first answer must be a plural, whereas the second answer could be singular or plural?
bones - are many in the body
behaviour - is an individual quality to a particular place or a person
Posted by: Sai Prathap Reddy Gade | January 29, 2019 at 10:43
I think that
1/ using the plural because of " recipeS"
2/ "urban and rural blackbirds" can regard as a singular noun ( blackbird in general), it can be also a plural noun (urban blackbird and rural blackbird)
Posted by: Dang | January 29, 2019 at 10:54
1) singular bone is not accepted means general about bones not specific bone.your bones.
2 ) because of "the" .It may contain singular or plural countable/ uncountable.
Posted by: Pachu | January 29, 2019 at 12:30
Behaviour is usually an uncountable noun, so it is rarely used in the plural:
✗ Parents should be able to prevent their children's crimes or bad behaviours .
✓ Parents should be able to prevent their children's crimes or bad behaviour.
✗ The media often encourage violence and aggressive behaviours.
✓ The media often encourage violence and aggressive behaviour.
Posted by: Ameet | January 29, 2019 at 15:26
bones is a countable noun
behaviour is an uncountable noun
Posted by: tkhan | January 29, 2019 at 23:37
Because it's not specified which bone we are talking about. It has no article nor does it have any determiner.
-----
includes recipes to strengthen your BACK bone.
includes recipes to strengthen your the smallest BONE in your body.
Posted by: Elliot | January 30, 2019 at 13:21
Dear Simon,
I am writing to thank you for your extremely helpful website on IELTS.
I am from Iran and I have recently managed to get two solid 8s in Listening and Reading parts a 7.5 in Speaking and a 7 in Academic Writing.
I relied heavily on your essays on this website and found them a GREAT help. Also, your advice on keeping exposure to English for at least 3 hours so that we can succeed on exam day helped me a lot; I studied articles from The Guardian, the New Yorker or the Economist and I listened to as many English recordings as I could.
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation again to you. Thank you VERY much for all the information you share with all us from around the world.
Best regards,
Fatemeh
Posted by: Fatemeh | January 30, 2019 at 15:29
FROM SIMON:
1) It would be strange to have a recipe that helps only one bone in the body. If you use the singular 'bone', the reader will wonder which bone! The idea is that something helps your 'bones' - all of them.
2) 'behaviour' can be an uncountable OR a countable noun. Both work fine in this case.
behaviour (uncountable) = the overall way of behaving
behaviours (countable) = the specific actions that make up the overall behaviour
Posted by: Simon | January 30, 2019 at 16:57
FROM SIMON:
Congratulations Fatemeh! I'm happy that you found my lessons so useful. Thanks for your positive words.
Posted by: Simon | January 30, 2019 at 17:00
Thank you very much, dear Simon
Posted by: Fatemeh | January 31, 2019 at 09:43
Because Bones is proceeded by plural, includes recipes whereas, behaviour/behaviours is followed by urban and blackbirds, which are singular and plural respectively.
Posted by: Awtsana | May 03, 2019 at 13:38