Service or Services – What is The Plural of “Service”?

The term “service” is very commonly used, as there are many businesses, individuals, and companies that provide help or work for others. However, it is not uncommon to see “service” written as “services”, which begs the question – is “services” the correct pluralized form of “service”?

“Service” Or “Services” – What Is The Plural Of “Service”?

The correct and proper plural form of “service” is “services”. This is because “services” is utilized when a company, business, or person is providing their customers with multiple “services”, as opposed to only providing their customers with one specific or one type of service.

When Should I Use “Service”?

We should use the term “service” any time that we are discussing a single or predominant service provided by a business. For example, when we are discussing an emergency “service”, we are describing a singular one, as in just the ambulance “service” or just the police “service”.

Here are some examples that showcase the appropriate use of the term “service”:

• The soup kitchen provides free service to the homeless population in the city.
• We received phenomenal service last night at the new restaurant in town.
• She provided a terrible level of customer service and was fired because of it.
• Please, call our customer service number if you have any other questions, comments, or concerns.
• I used our local laundry service for the first time last week and was very pleased with their work.
• The taxi service in town is always overwhelmed and busy, as they are the only ones in existence.
• The answering service for that company is awful – they never even return your calls!
• The cleaning service provided by the hotel is terrible.
• The dinner service was subpar at best and made it so I don’t believe we will return to the restaurant.
• I ought to get a public service medal for all of my work and volunteer hours.

When Should I Use “Services”?

We should use the term “services” whenever we wish to express the plural form of “service”. This would mean that we are describing multiple or a variety of offered “services”. For example, when we are discussing emergency “services”, we are talking about the fire, police, and ambulance “services” together.

We will now go over the following examples that highlight the use of the term “services”:

• That company offers specialized services to those customers who are blind or deaf.
• The new esthetician in town offers multiple services for nails, eyebrows, eyelashes, and more!
• Our normal services will be resumed in the spring, once the snow has melted.
• The government aims to improve public funding and services by the beginning of 2023.
• The officers enjoy the benefits of favoritism and specialized services that the general public is not pertinent to.
• He advertises his new businesses services on the public job board websites.
• The two towns were connected by both the train and bus services.
• There was a major accident, so emergency services were promptly called to offer assistance.
• Call this number in order to discover the public services available in your area.
• My son requires the services of a doctor; however, we are unable to find one.

Is “Service” A Countable Or Uncountable Noun?

The term “service” is classified as being both a countable and an uncountable noun. Whether the term “service” is considered countable or uncountable is determined by the specific context and usage of the term. “Service” is countable when we can count the number of provided “services”.

On the other hand, we will consider “service” uncountable when it is used as a generalized term or when we are only discussing a single service.

Is “Service” or “Services” Used The Most?

As we can see from the data provided by Google Ngram Viewer, the term “service” is used more often than “services”. However, in the present day, the difference in use between these two terms can be considered to be quite marginal.

From the 1800s to approximately 1985, the use of the term “service” was far more popular or predominant than the use of the term “services”. Although, for nearly two decades after (1985-2005), the use of the term “services” was more common.

What Is The Plural Possessive Of “Service”?

The correct plural possessive form of “service” is “services'”. We would use this particular form of “service” when we are discussing the possession of the “services” themselves. An example of this would be discussing the “Services'” Team’s documents – as “services” is considered a title or group in this context.