The Easy Way Out

[poliphilo]

 Is the word "media" singular or plural? I try "the media is' and then "the media are"- and both look wrong.

I know what, I just won't write about the media at all.....

Comments

[cmcmck]

It can be used either way- one of those- although the modern plural is 'medias'.

Its actually Latin and is itself the plural of 'medium'

[conuly]

In some contexts media is the plural of medium. However, whatever the pedants like to say, in the context you're referring to media is a mass noun.

[mtbc]

My hazy memory is that, for some of these nouns that indicate some corporate collection of things, the US tends to default the other way from the UK in how plural they become grammatically, though I no longer recall which leans which way.

[conuly]

This doesn't apply to the word "media", which is used as a mass noun. This applies to words like "class" or "team", in which people in the UK are much more likely to use constructions such as "the team are" or "the class were".

[poliphilo]

You're not going to catch me using "medias"......

[poliphilo]

Media undoubtedly started out as a plural but, well, language is always developing and changing....

[poliphilo]

Ha!

British English and American English are open to one another. I know I use Americanisms now that I wouldn't have dreamed of using when I was a kid.