Learn English – Should I write mobile phone or mobile phones

singular-vs-plural

I am writing a sentence about the history of mobile phone, but I am not sure whether I should use a singular or plural noun,

I think mobile phones were invented to make our lives more stressful.

I think mobile phone was invented to make our lives more stressful.

Best Answer

You can use either singular or plural here, but if using the singular you must use the definite article:

I think the mobile phone was invented to make our lives more stressful.

The singular would be more common than the plural though. That's because in this sort of sentence the singular means the "type". If we think about it, a person invented one mobile phone, and lots of copies were then made of it. 5 billion mobile phones weren't all invented separately.

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