1.35 When there is only one of something: singular nouns

There are certain things in the world that are unique. There are other things which you almost always want to talk about one at a time. This means that there are some nouns, or more often some meanings of nouns, for which only a singular form is used.

When a noun is used with such a meaning, it is called a singular noun. Singular nouns are always used with a determiner, because they behave like the singular form of a count noun.