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I was doing my online banking and reading through their material, when I noticed a blurb " we offer you a wide range of savings account and fixed deposit products and services.....". Should this not have read " we offer you a wide range of savings accounts and....", as there are multiple types of accounts offered. further on they stated numerous savings account, again should this not have been numerous savings accounts.

My question is what is the correct usage of adding a s when dealing with definition that may have multiple or singular preferences,e.g

This is my savings account, as I've indicate a singular person. We offer multiple savings accounts, indicating plural types of accounts. However what is correct when stating "we offer a current and savings (account or accounts)" as in this case there are two accounts in the sentence.

Somehow when reading that I started to question the correct usage of plurals in singular or multiple forms.

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  • "... a wide range of savings account (products and services) and fixed deposit products and services..." Does it make sense?
    – user140086
    Commented Jun 26, 2016 at 8:57
  • Hi Rathony, it does however I'm trying to determine is there is a grammatical rule regarding how and when to use s in such cases, would you use savings account or savings accounts, another example is it correct to say "provide a variety of services or Provides a variety of services, since variety is multiple and services is multiple.
    – Evolutionpill
    Commented Jun 26, 2016 at 9:58
  • The rule is rewrite confusing sounding sentences. Is "products and services" regarded as one thing, two things, or many many things? How are we supposed to distribute the noun adjuncts? When can two noun adjuncts be combined with "and" and be pasted in front of two nouns that are combined with "and"?
    – Phil Sweet
    Commented Jun 26, 2016 at 11:39

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In this case, "savings account" is singular because it is operating as an adjective to "products and services."

The phrase says: " ... we offer you a wide range of savings account products and services and fixed deposit products and services ... "

This could have had a different typography, like this: " ... We offer you a wide range of

• Saving account products and services

• Fixed deposit products and services

Or this: "... we offer you a wide range of both (1) savings account products and services and (2) fixed deposit products and services ... "

If it had been expressed a little differently, so that both adjectives were nouns, then there would have been plurals all over the place:

" ... we offer a wide range of products and services for savings accounts and fixed deposits."

But the phrase " ... we offer you a wide range of savings account and fixed deposit products and services ... " isn't complicated enough to require that much elaboration. It can be succinct and still understandable.

Similar uses:

• Our shop stocks a wide range of doll and teddy bear clothes and accessories.

• Jim's Bike A-Go-Go maintains a large inventory of bicycle and tricycle parts and repair kits.

• My daughter Jessica has learned to draw a variety of human and animal faces and feet.

• My cat Sassafras thinks she is the exclusive owner of all kitten and puppy treats and toys.

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  • Dissimilar usage: I'm auditing the books of various health and sports centres.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 26, 2016 at 16:07
  • But the context doesn't matter. It is a grammar question, not a subject matter issue. The grammatical principle is the same in all contexts.
    – Ann
    Commented Jun 27, 2016 at 21:32
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    It shows that the argument 'In this case, "savings account" is singular because it is operating as an adjective to "products and services." ' is not rigorous. Attributive nouns are certainly usually singular in form, but not always. For instance, savings account rather than saving account.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 27, 2016 at 22:46

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