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This earlier question Is using “fruits” as the plural of “fruit” acceptable? has a number of answers as to whether fruit can be in the plural form fruits.

The consensus of the answers there seems to be to use the singular fruit in general and use the plural fruits only to describe "different varieties/kinds of fruit".

But I think there's more to it than that.

According to Ngram, eat more fruits and vegetables is substantially more frequently used than eat more fruit and vegetables.

I'm not sure if fruit in this phrase necessarily denotes different varieties/kinds of fruit. But even if it does, the same phrase shows more hits for the singular fruit in British English.

Of course, the same phrase shows substantially more hits for the plural fruits in American English.

Now, returning to the original Ngram, it seems to me that the more hits for the plural fruits is apparently due to the fact that the gap between the two uses is larger in American English than in British English, regardless of whether fruit in the phrase actually refers to "different varieties/kinds of fruits".

Am I on to something or am I mistaken?

EDIT

For those AE speakers who say Americans never "say" fruits regardless of the prevalent proof that they "write" fruits, here's some proof saying otherwise:

(1) Study: Eat 10 daily servings of fruits and vegetables by Fox News

(2) Dr. Campbell: Eating more fruits and vegetables can prolong life by CBS North Carolina

As you can see they speak American English in both these news reports and they talk about the same research paper.

Now, here's another video addressing the same research paper but "This Morning" is a British channel and they apparently speak British English. And I notice they keep saying "fruit and veggies" never "fruits":

(3) Do We Really Need to Eat 10 Portions of Fruit and Veg a Day? by This Morning

Now what?

JK2
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    Speaking as a Brit, I have never heard "Eat more fruits and vegetables." – Mick Dec 14 '17 at 07:04
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    I disagree that “eat more fruits” does not denote different kinds of fruit. – user 66974 Dec 14 '17 at 07:44
  • I don't think that my answer says "to use the singular fruit in general and use the plural fruits only to describe 'different varieties/kinds of fruit'." In the section I titled “fruit” as conventional count noun, with countable plural “fruits” or “fruit”, I said that the non-count usage feels more natural to me, but evidently some people use "fruits" or "fruit" as count plurals with the meaning "pieces of fruit". – herisson Dec 18 '17 at 04:53
  • Isn’t what you’re onto a variant of the hoary old question about the wage… or the wages of Sin? I’m a Brit of 62 who works in a supermarket and I’ve never once noticed anyone using fruits and vegetables. I think fruits as a plural works only in sweeping concepts like the fruits of the Earth, most mundanely in the fruits of his labour or through French in Fruits de Mer. In theory we might use either What fruit(s) do you grow? I think the (s) unlikely. – Robbie Goodwin Dec 18 '17 at 21:35
  • Can you clarify? Do you mean to ask "Do Brits use fruits to mean multiple varieties, whereas Americans use 'fruit' to mean both multiple varieties and multiple instances of one variety?" – Azor Ahai -him- Dec 21 '17 at 01:19
  • @Azor-Ahai No, I think that's the other way around. Please check the Ngrams in BE and AE. – JK2 Dec 21 '17 at 01:30
  • @JK2 Your ngrams are part of what's confusing me, I'm not sure what you're trying to conclude from them. – Azor Ahai -him- Dec 21 '17 at 01:37
  • @Azor-Ahai My point is, if fruits (in the plural) is simply limited to denote "different varieties/kinds of fruits", why it is that the same phrases "eat more fruit(s) and vegetables" are treated differently in BE and AE. – JK2 Dec 21 '17 at 02:48
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    I'm in the US, and "Eat more fruits and vegetables" sounds wrong to me. However, I just did some googling and found both phrases. – aparente001 Dec 24 '17 at 04:54
  • This question of fruit with an s was on ELL too. No one uses fruit with an s in *common parlance*. Neither in BrE or AmE. It is not treated differently. There are a lot of SEO articles written by Indians in India. Maybe that's why. Ngrams does not show how people speak. Only what is in written records. – Lambie Dec 24 '17 at 23:47
  • Americans at times speak horribly, I know. I live in the states, but no one ever says fruit with an s. No one. – Lambie Dec 24 '17 at 23:49
  • @Lambie What is an "SEO article"? In the 2008 link below the ngram, you have this Web MD article that uses "fruits". https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/tc/quick-tips-adding-fruits-and-vegetables-to-your-diet-get-started – JK2 Dec 25 '17 at 03:34
  • @Lambie Under the 2008 link of "fruits", you have this paper titled "Getting young men to eat more fruit and vegetables..." whose first author seems to be an Aussie (Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service, New South Wales.) Aussies speak more like BE than AE, I think. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19053939 – JK2 Dec 25 '17 at 03:37
  • @Lambie And where are the "Indians" you talked about? Do they now hire Indians to even write Web MD articles? – JK2 Dec 25 '17 at 03:39
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    @JK2 There is nothing wrong at all with Indian English but there are some differences. The New South Wales author has used standard English. – Lambie Dec 25 '17 at 16:17

2 Answers2

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I'm British, and if I ate 3 grapes instead of one apple I'd be eating more fruits but less fruit.

On supermarket packaging a bag of apples sold by number is likely to say 6 fruit without an s (or x6), but this is about the only place you do occasionally see fruits. Using fruits to mean types of fruit is essentially unknown here. What's more common in this sort of advice is to use a word like variety or different in a second sentence.

Chris H
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    Do you mean 6 fruit or 6 fruits in your supermarket example? – JK2 Dec 14 '17 at 07:48
  • @JK2 it's more likely to be fruit (no s). It's occasionally fruits (with an s). I tried to keep the sentence compact, maybe too compact. – Chris H Dec 14 '17 at 08:01
  • @JK2 I thought I'd check abag of apples I have here in work. Alas it just say "x6". – Chris H Dec 14 '17 at 10:22
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    I don't get the analogy, how does eating 3 grapes be eating more "fruits"? You're eating the same fruit, and grape is countable, you'd be eating more grapes not less fruit in general. – Mari-Lou A Dec 20 '17 at 09:16
  • @Mari-LouA I'd be eating more items. It's not really meant to be an analogy but to say that 1 apple > 3 grapes when considering a mass noun fruit, but 1 apple < 3 grapes when considering countable nouns - and the plural fruits with s forces a countable noun. It's all a bit forced: fruits isn't commonly used, but when it is, it's all about the counting – Chris H Dec 20 '17 at 10:34
  • The answer is right. But the fruits (yes, here) of our labor are all for naught. – Lambie Dec 24 '17 at 23:48
  • It would be helpful to see a picture of such a bag here with "6 fruit" or "6 fruits". – hippietrail Mar 05 '18 at 03:20
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    @hippietrail my regular supermarket uses something like "quantity: 6" in the overprinted panel with the best before date etc., but I'll keep my eye out for an example – Chris H Mar 05 '18 at 06:48
  • @ChrisH: I'm going to be watching for it too because I just heard from a Canadian earlier today who thinks "fruits" is the only way and nobody says "fruit and vegetables", which came as a surprise. – hippietrail Mar 05 '18 at 07:29
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Is there a US/UK usage split here? Definitely! Brits overwhelmingly favour the uncountable "substance" mass noun usage fruit...

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...where Americans are equally decisively committed to the countable form fruits...

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The American version sounds rather peculiar to me (a Brit). But it does have the benefit of consistency, in that it's the same "pluralising" usage as vegetables.

FumbleFingers
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