Why this word add "s" ? "improvements"

[Polyester]

I quoted a sentence for you reference.Hope someone can help me clear my mind.


It was followed by a special North Korean human rights side event during the recent UN General Assembly in New York in which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, and the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea demanded improvements in North Korea's human rights record.

 

[emsr2d2]

You haven't quoted a sentence, you've quoted a fragment. Please put your actual question in the body of your post, not in the title. Usually, there is more than one improvement to be made to something that needs improving, hence the plural.

 

[Polyester]

So,how can you see or find more than one improvement on that sentences?

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not sure what you mean. We generally refer to things as needing "improvement(s)" (uncountable) or "improvements" (countable) - it's a matter of personal choice much of the time. If a piece specifically gives just one improvement which is needed then the countable singular could be used. If it lists multiple improvements, then the countable plural could be used. If no examples are given then the uncountable singular or plural is acceptable.

In your particular example, it says "the UN High Commissioner ... and the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea demanded improvements ...". Presumably, it is possible to find a transcript of what they actually said. In that transcript, I assume they demanded more than one improvement.

 

[Polyester]

I'm not sure what you mean. We generally refer to things as needing "improvement(s)" (uncountable) or "improvements" (countable) - it's a matter of personal choice much of the time. If a piece specifically gives just one improvement which is needed then the countable singular could be used. If it lists multiple improvements, then the countable plural could be used. If no examples are given then the uncountable singular or plural is acceptable.

In your particular example, it says "the UN High Commissioner ... and the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea demanded improvements ...". Presumably, it is possible to find a transcript of what they actually said. In that transcript, I assume they demanded more than one improvement.

Which parts you don't understand?
Which parts you are not sure?

 

[emsr2d2]

Which parts you don't understand?
Which parts you are not sure?

What I didn't understand was the question "Can you see or find more than one improvement on that sentence?"

You didn't ask us to improve upon the sentence you quoted. There is nothing grammatically wrong with the sentence you quoted. From the quote, we don't know what improvements to the human rights record were demanded. If they only demanded one single improvement to North Korea's human rights record, then it should have said that those people "demanded an improvement to .... ". If more than one improvement, or an unspecified number of improvements were demanded, then the use of "improvements" was correct.