Is the word 'toast' plural?

Question

Is the word 'toast' (like in bread toast, not speech toast) plural?
I thought it's just 'toast' but my teacher here in Korea told me it's toasts.
Here's the question "Sometimes people have milk, eggs, and _____(toast or toasts) for breakfast."

Wouldn't the answer be toast?

Answer 1

No, "toast" is NOT plural, but your teacher is mistaken. It is a singular noun. It's just an unusual type of (singular) noun that does not take a plural at all. So we say, "the toast IS burnt", using the singular form of the verb (not "are burnt" as a plural form would demand).

The reason for the confusion is that MOST nouns are "count nouns" with both singular and plural.

"Toast", on the other hand, is a "mass noun". Like other mass nouns -- furniture, gold, stuff, weather, etc.-- it refers to something as a whole, not to the individual units. These words may be used in constructions like "pieces OF furniture/gold", "types OF weather". But the base noun itself it treated as a singular. You don't say "one weather" or "one stuff"... Incidentally, note that "milk" as you use it in your example is ALSO a "mass noun" (hence singular "milk" but plural "eggs").

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1105/p18s03-hfes.html
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:mass_noun

Answer 2

Toast Plural

Answer 3

You CAN pluralize toast.
You do not pluralize the word toast if you are referring to bread (mass noun as mentioned above), but you can pluralize it if you toast someone. For example:
I delivered two toasts tonight at the wedding.
In your example, Sometimes people have milk, eggs, and (2 slices of) toast for breakfast.

Answer 4

Yes, the answer would be toast. It is just one of those words that in common usage is not pluralized. We speak of "two pieces of toast" - so the word "pieces" is the plural.

Answer 5

yeah.
toast is plural.
not toasts.
that just sounds dumb

Answer 6

Yes, when it's not singular.
It can be both like scissors.