A SHAMBLE or A SHAMBLES?

 • We couldn’t use the hall for lectures as it was a shamble.

When a place looks untidy or a situation appears confusing, then one of the words that define this is ‘shambles’. ‘Shambles' is a noun and should be treated as a singular noun, hence the need to be preceded by the indefinite article ‘a'. Meanwhile, there exists ‘shamble' which is a verb. 

When rewritten, the above sentence will be:

We couldn’t use the hall for lectures as it was a shambles. 

The peace talk between the two warring factions was a complete shambles.   

Also in this category are: crossroads, summons, etc.  


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