Background:

[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** *?

Other questions on this site are about the regular mass noun (the fruit is) vs the regular count noun (the fruit are), but using the singular form "fruit" also as the plural form is only tangentially touched on once that I can see. I'm looking for a canonical answer on this specific point.

Do dictionaries, English grammars, or style guides list "fruit" as its own plural? Is it considered correct or incorrect?

If it's a nonstandard usage, where is it used? American English? Just some areas? It sounds wrong to me as a native Australian English speaker.

**Is it correct to say "two fruit"?**


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