0

Which of these is correct? “Types of citrus fruit” or “types of citrus fruits”? I suspect it is the first example, but I would really like to know what the grammar rule governing these situations actually reads. What determines whether the object of a preposition should be singular or plural when it modifies a plural noun? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

jbebout1295
  • 11
  • In fact the word 'fruit' is used as its own plural more times than 'fruits', we would normally say 'a bowl of fruit' for example. But to answer your more general question the singular is most often used after 'types', for instance 'types of truck', 'types of computer' and so on. I can't give you a grammatical rule but I believe that it has more to do with the noun preceding the preposition than with the preposition itself. We don't say 'lots of car' for instance (although we do say "lots of fruit" but as I said 'fruit' is often its own plural). – BoldBen Apr 16 '21 at 05:58
  • @BoldBen "Fruit", in these cases of apparently missing s for a plural, is not considered to represent the concept in terms of units (whole fruits), but as a mass, and is used according to the uncountable aspect of the concept; as such it has no plural. (OALD: fruit [C,U] part of a plant containing seeds […]). – LPH Apr 16 '21 at 07:51
  • Does this answer your question? Types of things vs. types of thing – LPH Apr 16 '21 at 07:57
  • See this, it might answer your question fully: https://english.stackexchange.com/q/5539/349876 – LPH Apr 16 '21 at 07:59
  • @LPH an Ngram search comparing 'many fruit' and 'many fruits' shows fairly similar frequencies for both phrases indeed around 1900 'many fruit' temporarily exceeded 'many fruits' in popularity. I think that this argues for 'fruit' being used as a plural. – BoldBen Apr 16 '21 at 08:23
  • @BoldBen Do you mean, then, "being used as the countable noun in its singular form"? It can't be plural without an s. Or is it that there is an irregular plural as well as a regular one? That's is not mentioned in the dictionaries. – LPH Apr 16 '21 at 08:34
  • @BoldBen You should check, you have got a bunch of false positives in the "many fruit" ngram. – LPH Apr 16 '21 at 08:38
  • @BoldBen It is true, however, that in times long gone by, you can find some instances of this irregular plural (in your ngram). There are also a few cases in the recent past (1980s, for example), but those would be errors , I think. – LPH Apr 16 '21 at 09:09
  • "Type" follows the lines of "kind" and "sort" in being flexible as far as plurality is concerned. "Types of citrus fruit" / "types of citrus fruits" / "type of citrus fruit" / "type of citrus fruits" are all possible. Incidentally, the object of the preposition doesn't modify the head noun; rather, it's a complement of the preposition "of". – BillJ Apr 16 '21 at 10:17

0 Answers0