Information or Informations? Grammar for Work Emails

Write “information,” not “informations,” when you mean facts about something. In a work email, use “some information” or “this information is.” If you need to count individual facts, write “two pieces of information” or name the details directly.

The word information is uncountable in this meaning. That affects more than its ending: “these information are” needs a change to both these and are.

Choose the noun before choosing the number

The British Council’s guide to uncount nouns explains that nouns such as information do not take a plural ending or a/an. A phrase such as a piece of information supplies a countable unit.

Compare these workplace examples:

What you mean	Useful wording
Facts without a particular count	I have some information about the office move.
One individual fact	I need one more detail: the room number.
Two individual facts	Please confirm two details: the room number and the start time.
The documents containing the facts	The two notices contain the information we need.

Use a number when it helps your reader. “Please confirm the room number” can be more direct than “Please give me a piece of information.” A document may contain several facts, so counting documents does not tell you how many details they contain.

Match this or these, then is or are

This information is useful and these details are useful are both grammatical. Their nouns require different surrounding words.

Purdue OWL’s count and noncount noun guide shows this/that with noncount nouns and these/those with plural count nouns. George Mason University’s Writing Center explains that noncount nouns take singular verbs.

Keep the pattern together:

This information is in the folder.

These details are in the folder.

These two notices contain the information.

In the last sentence, notices is the subject of contain. The sentence uses a plural verb because it is about what the notices contain. The word information stays unchanged.

The advice and advise lesson covers a related spelling problem: choosing a guidance noun or a verb. Here, the task is to keep the noun, number words and verb consistent.

Practice: point a colleague to one notice

This situation is fictional. You are Dora, and your colleague Ellis is updating the staff guide’s section on office bike storage.

Use these facts:

• One current notice, Bike storage, is in the shared Office resources folder. Ellis already has access to it.
• The notice contains two confirmed details: the bike room opens at 7 a.m., and staff use their building badge to enter.
• Ellis should use that information to update the staff guide. No deadline has been supplied.
• You are referring to the shared notice; you are not attaching a file.

Write a subject and a short email before reading the model. Identify the notice, explain what it contains and give Ellis the next step. Include the word information at least once.

One possible email

Subject: Bike storage information for the staff guide

Hi Ellis,

The Bike storage notice is in the Office resources folder. It contains two confirmed details: the bike room opens at 7 a.m., and staff use their building badge to enter.

Please use this information to update the staff guide’s bike storage section.

Thanks, Dora

The notice is refers to one document. Two confirmed details counts the facts. This information refers back to those facts without adding an -s to information.

The request names the section Ellis should update. It does not invent a deadline or claim that a file is attached. For more practice explaining where a document is and what to do with it, see the attachment and shared-document guide.

Revise it: the facts are now in two notices

Before Dora sends the email, the source documents change:

• The single Bike storage notice has been replaced by two current notices in the same folder.
• Bike room hours contains the 7 a.m. opening time.
• Bike room access contains the building-badge entry instruction.
• Ellis needs information from both notices for the same staff-guide update. The opening time and entry method have not changed.

Rewrite your email before reading the second model. Name both notices and match your verbs to their subjects. Keep information unchanged.

One possible revised email

Subject: Bike storage information for the staff guide

Hi Ellis,

Two notices are in the Office resources folder: Bike room hours and Bike room access. The first gives the 7 a.m. opening time; the second explains entry with a building badge.

Please use the information from both notices to update the staff guide’s bike storage section.

Thanks, Dora

Two notices are matches a plural subject. The information from both notices still uses information without a plural ending. Dora also makes clear which fact each notice contains, so Ellis knows to consult both.

These are alternative drafts: the first email was never sent. The revised version does not need to correct an earlier message. Its subject can stay the same because the topic and requested update remain the same.

Check the noun and its surrounding words

Read your draft once for the facts and once for the grammar:

• Are you counting documents, individual details or neither?
• Have you used information without -s or a/an?
• Does each verb match its subject: the notice is, the notices are, the information is?
• Will the reader find every fact needed for the task?

For a broader editing routine, try business email English for non-native speakers.

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