12 Nouns That Are Always Plural

If you’re deep in the world of fashion influencers on Instagram, or have ever caught an episode of a fashion reality show, then you might have heard phrases like "My go-to evening look is a smoky eye and a red lip," or "This outfit could be completed with a tailored pant." If you have never done those things, then bear with me anyway. You get the idea: sometimes there is an assumption of an implied plural when singular versions of words are used. You’d have to be pretty avant-garde to put lipstick on only one lip or eye make-up on only one eye. 

While you’d be more likely to refer to eyes, lips, and trousers outside of fashion terminology, we’re all familiar with what one eye looks like. But what is a singular pant or, for British listeners, trouser? They don’t exist. 

"Pants," when referring to the clothing you’d pop on your legs, is an example of a "plurale tantum." That’s Latin for "plural only." In other words, a noun that is used only in plural form. If you’re a native English speaker, you might not even have noticed you’re using them. But here are a whole load of examples that you’ve almost certainly said – and how they ended up as "pluralia tantum."

1. Scissors

The first known uses of the word "scissors" are actually singular – spelled in a variety of ways, including starting with "cy." That was in the 15^th century, and the plural version quickly overtook the former in popularity. While you’d still hear "scissor" as a verb, or to form a compound noun like "scissor kick," you’re unlikely to come across a single scissor. The same is true of many other two-bladed tools – like "pliers," "forceps," "shears," "tweezers" and "tongs."

2. Glasses

When we’re talking about eyewear, the word "glasses" is like "spectacles," "goggles," or "binoculars": today, you’ll only hear them used as plurals. Even those who favor talking about a "red lip" don’t seem to have adopted a "tortoiseshell glass" as of yet. Things get a bit more complex if you pop "a pair of" in front of the words. The "a" suggests you should treat "a pair of glasses" as singular, but research shows that you’re equally likely to come across "a pair of glasses are" as "a pair of glasses is."

3. Jeans

Moving on to bottoms, lots of the names for two-legged garments are pluralia tantum. We have "overalls," "leggings," "shorts," "pants," "tights," and "trousers...

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3 Functions of Emotions

As a psychologist, I receive lots of questions about emotions and how to deal with them. Today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to educate you on the 3 main functions of emotions. There are many times when it appears emotions arise in us only to derail our mood and day, but that’s not necessarily the case. Even the worst emotions can be tools that we can use in our everyday lives as long as you understand what they're trying to tell you.

There are some emotions that are enjoyable to experience and others that feel awful. At times, that leads us to think of some emotions as “good” and others as “bad.” Let’s take that train of thought and see how it can play out if applied in a different scenario. I was re-watching Spike Lee’s film Crooklyn the other week. It’s about a family living in Brooklyn in the '70s. One of the children, Nate, has a broken arm, and his mother insists that he eats the black-eyed peas she made him for dinner because they are full of calcium. This child hates these peas! Well, in walks Dad with cake for everyone and the family is overjoyed—but poor Nate can’t have any cake until he eats those peas.

If you were to ask Nate which was good or which was bad, he would tell you that cake is good and peas are bad. His rationale—and I think most of us would agree—would be that he prefers the taste of cake. However, as his mother pointed out, the black-eyed peas are good because they have nutrients that are necessary for healing. They both serve a function and have a place in our lives. So let's start breaking down some of the functions of emotions and see where they fit.

Emotions motivate us

One function of emotions is that they get us revved up and ready to go. There is nothing that can motivate a behavior faster than emotions. I’ve seen people work harder than they ever had in their lives or give up faster than I can blink all based on their emotional experiences. Emotions get us prepared for action.

In fact, some of our action urges are hardwired in our biology. For instance, the action urge associated with anger is to attack. The action of attack will look different depending on the person. It could be displayed as yelling, hitting, gossiping, intentionally sabotaging someone, or self-harm, to give some examples.

The reason I use the word urge is that you don’t have to act on it. I could have the urge to urinate while walking down 5th Ave in Manhattan, but I wouldn’t wet my pants in the street. I would problem solve the situation which would lead me to find the nearest restroom. While running to the restroom, I could have the urge to yell at people for walking too slowly, but I would try to resist that urge and focus on something else, which allows the anger to dissipate. In some ways, emotions are like the nitrous button in your suped-up Fast and Furious-style...

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Do All Adverbs End in '-Ly'?

Today we’re going to see if we are allowed to “drive slow” instead of “slowly.” May we “jump high” or “sit up straight”? What about the advertising slogan “Eat fresh”? Yes, today is adverb day, with a sprinkling of adjectives.

What are adjectives and adverbs?

An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun. For example, in the sentence “That is a real diamond,” “real” is an adjective that modifies the noun “diamond.” Other examples of adjectives are “devious” and “fair.”

Squiggly eyed the chocolate with a devious smile.

Aardvark reminded Squiggly of his promise to eat only his fair share.

An adverb, on the other hand, modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs often have an “-ly” at the end, as in “happily” and “heartily.”

Squiggly happily posed for the cameras.

Aardvark heartily hoped he would get a turn in the limelight.

Such adverbs are usually formed by adding “-ly” to the end of an adjective, as we just did with the adjectives “happy” and “hearty.”

Do all adverbs end in '-ly'?

“Drive slow” isn't wrong because “slow” is a flat adverb.

Other adverbs, however, such as “very,” don't fit this pattern. You might complain, for example, “Squiggly eats very noisily.” In that sentence, the adverb “very” modifies another adverb, “noisily.”

To confuse matters, adjectives can also end in “-ly.” For example, in the sentence “The lonely snail stared up at the moon,” the adjective “lonely” modifies the noun “snail.” Poor Squiggly. 

So you can’t tell if words are adverbs or adjectives just by looking to see if they end in “-ly.” These two letters at the end of a word can be a clue, but you can’t rely on spelling.

What are flat adverbs?

You must have heard the joke “Working hard? Or hardly working?...

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Can You Contribute to a 401k and an IRA in the Same Year?

A podcast listener named Justin says, “I maxed out my 401(k) for 2022 and still have more money to invest. Can I also max out an IRA—and if so, would the contribution also be tax-deductible?”

Justin, thanks for your question, and congratulations on being such a good saver! I’ll answer your question in this post by reviewing the retirement account contribution rules and pitfalls to avoid. 

Can you contribute to a 401k and an IRA in the same year?

The short answer to the question is yes; you can contribute to a workplace retirement plan and an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) in the same year. However, having an extra retirement account changes the tax rules and benefits you receive in some cases. So, keep reading to learn how to take advantage of multiple retirement accounts in the same year.

First, let’s touch on why you’d want more than one retirement account. The primary benefits are saving more for retirement and reducing your current or future tax liability. Those are extremely powerful and why I’m a huge fan of tax-advantaged accounts. So, having more than one retirement account can help you build more wealth.

How much can you contribute to retirement accounts?

For 2022, workplace retirement plans, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), allow you to contribute up to $20,500 or $27,000 if you’re over age 50. If you’re like Justin and max one out with cash to spare, saving more in an IRA is a smart move. 

For 2022, the IRA contribution limits are much lower than workplace plans at up to $6,000 or $7,000 if you’re over 50. All the limitations I’ve covered apply whether you use a traditional or Roth IRA or account at work.

IRA Contribution Rules When You Have No Income

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Does the MIND Diet Support Brain Health?

Cheryl writes:

“I’ve been reading a lot about the MIND diet lately. A 50% reduction in Alzheimer’s cases seems pretty significant. Even if it’s not a controlled study, I’m willing to eat a few more blueberries just to hedge my bets. But I’m not ready to give up cheese quite so easily! How strong is the evidence that cheese increases the risk of Alzheimer’s?”

What is the MIND diet?

The MIND diet is a set of dietary guidelines proposed by researchers from Rush University. The diet combines elements from both the Mediterranean and DASH diets—two dietary patterns that have a long track record for promoting health and longevity—with a particular emphasis on foods and nutrients that have been associated either with cognitive health or decline.

The researchers hypothesized that following this diet could keep your brain healthy, preserve your cognitive abilities as you age, and perhaps even ward off dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. To test their theory, they reviewed dietary and medical records for almost a 1,000 people to see how closely their diets adhered to the MIND guidelines and how they fared in terms of brain health.

Their initial findings made quite a splash. In a study published in 2015 in the Journal of the American Alzheimer’s Association, they reported that those whose diets conformed most closely to the MIND diet principles were only half as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as those whose diets conformed the least well. The risk for those whose diets conformed only moderately well still was reduced by a third.

As Cheryl says, that certainly got everyone’s attention.

What’s on the MIND diet?

The MIND diet promotes ten “brain healthy” foods and discourages five foods. Along with the berries that Cheryl mentioned, you’re encouraged to eat plenty of vegetables, especially the green leafy kinds, nuts, legumes, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine. The foods that you’re supposed to limit are red meat, butter, and margarine, pastries and sweets, fried and fast food, and cheese. (Hey, who are they trying to kid here? That’s actually eight categories of foods!)

How strong is the evidence?

The original MIND diet study had a few limitations. First, as Cheryl points out, this was not a controlled study, where one group was put on a specific diet and another group served as a control. This was an observational study. That means that the subjects weren’t given any particular dietary instructions. They just agreed to let researchers gather information on what they ate and to take various neurological tests over time.

The researchers found an association (or correlation) between the MIND dietary pattern and improved cognitive health. But we don’t know how...

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3 Pre-Run Exercises to Prevent Injuries and Boost Performance

Now that we’re in the full swing of spring with more moderate weather, most people are spending more time outdoors engaging in activities such as running, walking, or hiking. It’s a great way to soak in the beauty of spring and enjoy quality time with friends or family while also getting exercise.

The weather here in the San Francisco Bay Area has been spectacular so my partner Farah and I decided to take our preschooler and toddler on their first real hike. We made the 1.8-mile out-and-back hike that included over 100 steps down to a rocky, secluded beach along the Land’s End Coastal Trail in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. 

After spending some time playing in the sand and stacking rocks on top of each other, we made our way back up the trail—with me carrying our toddler of course. I was really feeling the burn in my legs about two-thirds of the way back up the steps and it made me think about how incredible the human body is to be able to perform repetitive movements such as walking, running, and hiking for prolonged periods with relatively few issues. 

Allow me to nerd out for a moment: assuming the average person has a stride length of 2 to 2.5 feet, it takes about 2,000 steps to walk 1 mile. A study published in 2010 of over 1,000 Americans found that participants averaged about 5,000 steps a day, which adds up to over 1.8 million steps a year. 

If you run, walk, or hike two days or more a week for exercise, you can easily more than double that if you combine the number of steps you perform during exercise with the number of steps you perform throughout the day. 

The human body is truly an incredible machine to be just fine racking up that many steps every year. Well, just fine until you start feeling aches and pains that are more than just normal muscle soreness. 

If this is you, don’t worry, you’re not alone, because most people who run, walk, or hike for exercise are bound to experience aches and pains at some point. If you’re one of the few lucky ones who has never had an issue, you’ll still...

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Harness the Power of Your Anxiety with Dr. Chloe Carmichael

If you have days or moments (or years) during which you feel like your anxiety is in charge, or you’re stuck in patterns of self-criticism, double and triple-checking yourself, worrying about the future… then today’s interview is for you. 

 

I talked to Dr. Chloe Carmichael, author of the new book Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety. With her doctorate in clinical psychology from Long Island University and her years of private practice in New York City focusing on issues including stress management and self-esteem, Dr. Chloe delivers a great piece of news: anxiety and nervous energy can be your superpowers when you learn to harness them for good.

 

In this interview, we discuss what our anxiety may be trying to tell us, and what strategies we might use in the moment to harness its power for good.

 

Listen to the full conversation on Apple, Spotify, your favorite podcast platform, or just click the audio player above.

So, what is anxiety?

“I really think anxiety gets kind of a bad rap sometimes,” Dr. Chloe began. “People will often come and say, ‘Hey, Dr. Chloe, how do I get rid of my anxiety?’ And I want to explain that the goal is not to get rid of it. It's a gift from mother nature. We get it for a reason… It's actually a big source of energy. We just have to learn how to point [our anxiety] in the right direction. So, I think of it as that kind of heightened sense of awareness that we have when we realize that there's some kind of a challenge or a situation that we don't yet have fully resolved. And it's that little tickle from mother nature saying, ‘Hey, let's see how we can figure this out.”

 

In other words, anxiety isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s offering us insight and information that’s ours to pay attention to and make sense of. 

How might a mental shortlist soothe an overactive mind?

Dr. Chloe describes the “mental shortlist” as a great strategy for calming the mind.

 

“Having an active and tenacious mind can be a great thing until it starts to get in our own way,” she explains. She goes on to describe a case from her book in which a man was trying to prepare for an important meeting at work.

 

Once he had done all he could to prepare, he couldn’t seem to quiet his mind.

 

“He reached a point where he was just spinning his...

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