Is スポーツ a plural-only word?


Typically there is no pluralization in Japanese unless specified. For example:

> この車【くるま】は綺麗【きれい】。  
>  This car is clean. / These cars are clean.

Does スポーツ work in the same way? Considering the romanized form of スポーツ is
_supōtsu_ (sports), which is plural, does the no-plurals rule work backwards?
In this case:

> そのスポーツ が好【す】きです！  
>  I like that sport! / I like those sports!

My guess is that it does, but I want to make sure. Thank you!




Japanese usually doesn't distinguish between singular and plural nouns.

スポーツ is thus both singular and plural insofar as the singular/plural
distinction even makes sense when talking about Japanese.

There are several other words, which have a ツ at the end, like ドーナツ or ピーナッツ,
but only end it a single T. I conjecture that ツ was chosen over ト (as in スポート,
ドーナット or ピーナット), precisely because the plural is frequently encountered in
English.

In any case, スポーツ can be used when you mean a singular sport, e.g.

> クィディッチはハリーポッターの魔法界においての最も人気のあるスポーツである。  
>  Quidditch is the most popular sport in the magic world of Harry Potter.




Japanese usually doesn't distinguish between singular and plural nouns.

スポーツ is thus both singular and plural insofar as the singular/plural
distinction even makes sense when talking about Japanese.

There are several other words, which have a ツ at the end, like ドーナツ or ピーナッツ,
but only end it a single T. I conjecture that ツ was chosen over ト (as in スポート,
ドーナット or ピーナット), precisely because the plural is frequently encountered in
English.

In any case, スポーツ can be used when you mean a singular sport, e.g.

> クィディッチはハリーポッターの魔法界においての最も人気のあるスポーツである。  
>  Quidditch is the most popular sport in the magic world of Harry Potter.

