[Over here on this forum for English speakers learning Chinese][1], there is debate on which ones among the following are correct English:

- the fruit is
- the fruits are
- the fruit are

I'm a native Australian English speaker and would always say "the fruit is", using "fruit" as an uncountable noun. I believe all my family and friends here would say it the same way.

In the past year or two I have learned that some native English speakers from some other regions do in fact say "the fruits are", using "fruit" as a regular countable noun with a regular plural form. A Chinese friend of mine used to say this and it always stood out as an imperfection in his otherwise excellent English. Until I learned that it is indeed an acceptable regional variant.

But on the linked thread there are people vehemently insisting that "the fruit are" is also correct, or perhaps is the only correct form. This would make "fruit" a countable noun with an invariant plural form identical to its singular form, much like "fish" and "sheep". This seems totally wrong to me but the more I participate in the debate I start to question whether my belief is valid. So far none of the people defending this form have identified where they are from, which variety of English they speak, of even whether they are actually native speakers.

I see that there are already several questions on the site asking about the first two forms, but this is not a duplicate question since I can't find any questions about the third variant.

Is the third variant also correct? In which English-speaking regions is it used?



  [1]: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25277759