Content or contents — when do I use which form?
I realize that the one is the plural form of the other, but they seem to be used interchangeably.
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According to ldoce:
She kept the contents of the letter a secret.
water with a low salt content
The content of the media course includes scripting, editing, and camera work.
The graphics are brilliant. It’s just a shame the content is so poor.
The New Oxford American Dictionary entry for content has:
1. (usu. contents) the things that are held or included in something: he unscrewed the top of the flask and drank the contents | he picked up the correspondence and scanned the contents.
• [usually in singular] the amount of a particular constituent occurring in a substance: milk with a low-fat content.
2. the substance or material dealt with in a speech, literary work, etc., as distinct from its form or style: the outward form and precise content of the messages.
So, it tends to be used in the plural, except in certain particular cases.
“file content” vs. “file contents”
might be useful as well: english.stackexchange.com/questions/56831/…