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I don't have any details.

I've heard people saying this phrase both singularly and plurally, so I want to know which is the correct way. For me, it's easy to understand it as singular, but I'm not sure why they use the plural.

Dog Lover
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Luna
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    Hi, Luna, welcome to EL&U! Can you give us some more context for how you have heard the phrase used? Some sentences and situations where you've heard it each way would be ideal. – 1006a May 31 '17 at 18:59
  • Thank you! The example I always remember is on "I don't have any details". – Luna May 31 '17 at 20:25
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    Most of the time, that particular phrase would be plural. Check out the answers to the question *"Any" followed by singular or plural countable nouns? for more information. If you still have a specific question that isn't answered there, edit it into your question (or ask a different question). Good luck! – 1006a Jun 01 '17 at 14:56

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Instinctively, I would use the plural here.

  • Is there a psychopath among these people?
  • Are there psychopaths among these people?

At face value, both phrases can be used interchangeably. However, there is a difference in implication:

  • When using singular, you are implying that you expect the existence to be rare, and would be very surprised if it turns out that there is more than one psychopath among these people.
  • When using the plural, however, you are implying that you expect the possibility of there being more than one.

The implication often relies on the rarity of the thing you're looking for.

For your example about details, you are not really limiting yourself to asking about a single detail. If these person has three things to talk about (three details), you'll want to hear all of them, right?

So for your example, I would use plural. Details are not inherently rare, an therefore should not be restricted to singular usage.

edit
There are arguments to be made about the usage of "detail" as an uncountable noun. However, while I don't deny the grammatical correctness of doing so, I would personally favor using the countable plural over the uncountable singular, hence my answer.

Flater
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