1.34 uncount nouns ending in '-s'

Some nouns which end in '-s' and look as if they are plural are in fact uncount nouns. This means that when they are the subject of a verb, the verb is in the singular.

These nouns refer mainly to subjects of study, activities, games, and diseases.

• Physics is fun.
• Politics plays a large part in village life.
• Economics is the oldest of the social sciences.
• Billiards was gradually replaced by bridge.
• Measles is in most cases a relatively harmless disease.

Here are three lists of uncount nouns ending in '-s'.

These nouns refer to subjects of study and activities:

• acoustics, aerobics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, athletics, classics, economics, electronics, genetics, linguistics, logistics, mathematics, mechanics, obstetrics, physics, politics, statistics, thermodynamics

Note that some of these nouns are occasionally used as plural nouns, especially when you are talking about a particular person's work or activities.

• His politics are clearly right-wing.

These nouns refer to games:

• billiards, bowls, cards, darts, draughts, skittles, tiddlywinks

These nouns refer to diseases:

diabetes, measles, mumps, rabies, rickets, shingles