My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

Singularity is almost invariably a clue
No, it isn’t. That was just Sherlock Holmes being a smartarse. With some nouns,
singularity is more trouble than it’s worth.
Such  nouns  have  a  plural  form  but  do  what  the  dictionaries  describe  as
‘functioning as a singular’. Others can function as either a singular or a plural.
Which  is,  frankly,  no  help  at  all  to  those  of  us  who  like  rules.  Still  others
function as a singular in some senses and as a plural in others.
Yikes.
Well, if the rules don’t help, let’s try a few examples.
Mumps is nasty , measles is measly is perfectly correct. But so too is mumps are
nasty , measles are measly .
Sports  with  a  plural  form  tend  to  take  a  singular  verb  when  we  mean  them
generically,  but  a  plural  when  we  mean  something  more  countable,  such  as
exercises . So:
Athletics is tiresome.
meaning the whole
concept
Gymnastics are a great way to start the
day.
meaning gymnastic
exercises

---

Pilates  ,  by  the  way,  is  the  name  of  the  man  who  invented  it,  so  it  is  singular.
And harder than it looks.
A similar distinction can be made with academic subjects.
Acoustics  is  singular  when  we  mean  the  study  of  sound,  but  plural  when  we
mean sound qualities: the acoustics were dreadful . Similarly, if you study ethics
or  politics  ,  it  is  a  singular  subject,  but  if  you  bring  a  person’s  ethics  into
question or complain about company politics , they are plural.