leo malettadded a note 2 years ago

https://oneminuteenglish.org/en/stuff-stuffs/#:~:text=The%20plural%20of%20stuff%20is,is%20not%20in%20common%20use.

I don't agree: there are a few questionS — there are a lot of questionS. But with a collective noun: there's a little stuff — there's a lot of stuff. QUESTIONS are countable, STUFF is uncountable (and therefore treated as singular).

Uly, you don't agree that STUFF is a plural noun as stated on the site, right?

No, I don’t agree. It’s a collective noun that has no plural.

They also say that stuff is not a common noun. Really?

As I could read, they said "StuffS is not in common use." Anyway, it's obvious that stuff is not used in plural. Thanks, Uly!

STUFFS is NEVER used.

You’re welcome ☺️

By the way, we have the similar case in Russian: the word БАРАХЛО is never used in plural. "Я кое-как напихал своё барахло в чемодан и помчался на вокзал." "Чьё это барахло валяется на полу?" Same works for such words as бабьё (бабы), мужичьё (мужики), солдатня (солдаты), шмотьё (шмотки, т.е. предметы одежды).

Oh cool! 👍🏼

Quick recap: if the noun is uncountable — we treat it as singular (there's a lot/few); and if the noun is countable — we treat it as plural (there are a lot/a few)?

Correct!

A lot of love forever! 🤩

💝

Hi Folks,
Stupid question.
"A lot" is always "many/much", right?
However:
- "a few" is closer to "several" in the meaning of "somewhat many but not very many"?
- while "quite a few" is "quite many, more than expected"?
Is it right?