Last week’s column on uncountable nouns has prompted some readers to send in their queries related to the topic. Responding to the article, a reader writes: Is ‘thanks’ singular or plural? Which of these two expressions is correct? i) ‘many thanks’ ii) ‘much thanks’. Another reader writes: “Is the word ‘means’ singular or plural?”
A mother used to remind her four children of sending “thank-you” notes to all their dear ones every year. Each of them used to write creative thank-you notes using expressions such as “thanks a million”, “thanks a ton”, “loads of thanks”, “many thanks”, etc. One Christmas she didn’t remind them of their “thank-you” note duties. As a result, the children’s grandma did not receive acknowledgements of the generous cheques she had given. Upset about it, the old lady shared her disappointment with her friend. The following year the old lady told her friend, “This year all my grandchildren came over in person to thank me.” The friend exclaimed, “How wonderful! What caused the change in their behavior?” The grandmother replied, “Oh, that was easy. This year I didn’t sign the cheques.”
In the anecdote above, the phrases thanks a million, thanks a ton, loads of thanks and many thanks indicate that the word is plural. The word ‘thanks’ is a countable noun. It can be used either as a singular or a plural noun. Consider these examples:
Thanks are extended to Mr Lawrence for going through the manuscript and correcting the errors.
A big thanks goes to Mr Daniel Victor for designing the cover.
In the example 1 ‘thanks’ is used as plural and in the example 2 ‘thanks’ is used as singular. In most cases, ‘thanks’ is used as plural.
Many thanks or much thanks? Both the expressions have the same meaning. I have come across both the expressions but ‘many thanks’ is more common than ‘much thanks’ in both British and American English. The British National Corpus (BNC) has only six records of ‘much thanks’ but 239 records of ‘many thanks’. The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) has only 15 records of ‘much thanks’ but 255 records of ‘many thanks’. It is good to use the phrase that is more frequently used. Here are examples from BNC and COCA.
Many thanks to the performers for repeating the programme at such short notice.
Very many thanks for the contribution which you are making.
I owe much thanks to James for advice regarding the designing of the tasks…
Just like thanks, means is also treated as singular and plural. The singular and plural form is the same. As a singular noun, it means a method or an action or system by which something is achieved and as a plural noun it means financial resources or wealth as in the examples below:
Can you suggest an effective means of solving Chennai’s traffic problems? His daughter is quite independent.Shehas means to meet her expenses.
To the people I forgot, you weren’t on my mind for some reason and you probably don’t deserve any thanks any way.”- Eminem
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk