Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Can I Advise Peeps When to Use the Plural Form of "Advice"?

Don't ever put an "s" on the end of "advice" unless you are referring to a formal notice of a financial transaction. For example, "Cheques and remittance advices were listed as per the purchase ledger."

Otherwise, the word "advices" doesn't exist in everyday English language.

It's a telltale sign that a writer isn't a native English speaker, I suppose. And hey, there is nothing wrong with learning the English language. In other languages, there is a plural form of the word "advice."

But I've seen dozens of forum posts and comments like this:

"Thanks friend for your advices..."
"I'll be sure to take all this great advices..."
"I hope someone can give me advices on when to..."

I found some excellent advice (pun intended) in the Wordreference forum. Dmitry suggested adding the word "piece" which allows an "s" at the end." His examples: "One piece of advice...", "Two pieces of advice..." and so on.

Does that help?

3 comments:

  1. I hear people say "equipments" and it grates. guess i should give it a chance. The language changes. Many don't say the "s" sound they say "sh" as in "shtrong" "sthreet" etc. Words are lost from disuse. English may be doomed but not in my lifetime.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, equipments is another example. And I suppose the "piece of" suggestion would help. I haven't come across the "sh" thing, perhaps I read more than I listen. Thanks for dropping by Astro G, it's always good to hear from you.

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    2. Yeah, equipments is another example. And I suppose the "piece of" suggestion would help. I haven't come across the "sh" thing, perhaps I read more than I listen. Thanks for dropping by Astro G, it's always good to hear from you.

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